Infinite Potential
by MyAibou
Summary: Several months after the asteroid crisis, the Ghost Zone faces a new threat, while Danny struggles with a trial of a more personal nature. Post-canon, spoilers for the end of the series. DxS, minor TxV.
1. Chapter 1

**INFINITE POTENTIAL**

**Disclaimer: **Butch Hartman's brainchild, not mine. Owned by Nickelodeon, not me.

**Rating:** T for violence, adult themes, some language

**Warnings and Pairings: **Spoilers for **Phantom Planet** and pretty much the entire series. DxS, minor TxV.

**Author's Notes: **This story takes place several months after **Phantom Planet**. Although it's a stand-alone, it does exist in the same universe as my other DP fics. There is some set-up in _Tales from the Phantom Planet_, so it might be helpful to read that one first, particularly "The Teacher's Tale" and "The Advocate's Tale," but it's not necessary. There are also some references back to _The Lunch Club_, a short, pre-canon fic.

**Timeline:** Same deal as in _Tales_. We know that Danny was fourteen and a freshman in high school when he got his powers, that he remained fourteen through at least most of the first two seasons, and that there are at least two separate summer breaks (**Reality Trip **and** Claw of the Wild**.) School has started again in **Phantom Planet**, so putting all that together, it must be his junior year, making him sixteen. Any time references I make are based on that: as of **Phantom Planet**, Danny, Tucker, and Sam are sixteen and juniors at Casper High. Jazz has graduated and is in college.

**Acknowledgements: **As always, my heartfelt appreciation goes out to my fabulous beta-tester, DragonDancer5150. Despite coming down with a bad case of Real Life the last few months, she still made time to read and comment on this story, and she's always willing to toss ideas around when I get stuck. As Danny gushed to Tucker and Sam, "Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" :)

* * *

**One**

_**The Ghost Zone**_

She barely escaped from the Tower with her life. Or, her afterlife, as it were. Pulled without warning, along with many of her brethren, from their own time, they'd landed in the middle of a siege. Not even when Pariah Dark had ruled the Ghost Zone, before she and her brethren put him in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, had she seen such destruction. And in _this_ place! It was unthinkable.

They'd been summoned to the Tower by its Master to help defend it against a lone enemy but, impossibly, they had failed. Most of her brethren had fallen, and the Tower would fall soon as well. The Master, even in the face of losing everything, was impassive. _He is mistaken if he believes that by defeating me he can hold dominion over all that I command._

But she could not help but think he would not need to. Without the Tower… without its Master… she could scarcely think on all that could happen, here in the Ghost Zone, and to the Human World as well.

With only two or three of her brethren left defending against the onslaught, the Master pulled her aside and gave her a single task: _Find him. Warn him._

Her escape from the Tower had been difficult. The destruction was already too great and the Master's powers too diminished for him to grant her direct access to the destination he showed her. She would have to travel across the Ghost Zone and into the Human World under her own power. Despite her efforts at stealth, the enemy had seen her quit the Tower, and even while focusing his tremendous energies on his siege, he had enough to spare for an attack on her as well. A piece of himself separated off and followed her, determined to destroy her. He would have succeeded, had he not inexplicably recalled that part of himself at the moment when her energy had waned to almost nothing. Without sparing so much as a glance back at the Tower, she fled, trying her best to ignore the hideous wailing sound that arose behind her, not wanting to even contemplate what could cause such a horrifying sound, or what it might mean for the Master and his Tower. Her mission was clear.

And now, almost entirely depleted, she flew across the Ghost Zone, calling upon every reserve she had to accomplish that mission. She did not know the being whom she sought. He existed an indeterminable number of years in her future. But he was the only one besides her brethren who had succeeded in stopping the Ghost King, or so the Master had told her. And here was an even greater threat.

_Find him. Warn him. The one he thought was gone has returned._

* * *

_**City Hall**  
**Amity Park**_

_Please, kill me now._

Danny Fenton stood with his face buried in the palm of his hand. There were some things that were just too horrifying for even a half-ghost to face, and all the ghost powers in the world could not save him from this, the most harrowing of all ordeals: death by parental humiliation.

Not that he hadn't had plenty of chance to become battle-hardened over the course of his sixteen years. He would have expected it to get easier with time, but Jack and Maddie Fenton were the world's foremost authority in this particular brand of torture, always managing to outdo themselves in finding the most twisted and diabolical ways to mortify their son.

At least this time it was only his closest friends and not, say, the entire student body of Casper High, who were witness to Danny's abasement. Tucker Foley, his oldest friend, leaned in and whispered in his ear. "Dude, is that what I think it is?"

Sam Manson answered for him, her voice a mixture of disbelief and amusement. "Oh, yeah."

"Your dad is trippin', Danny," Valerie Gray concluded. The most recent addition to their foursome, Valerie was the least familiar with Danny's parents'… eccentricities.

Danny cringed. "Tell me something I don't know."

It was dusk, and the sky had just turned a dark purple as the four friends stood together on the wide balcony just outside the rotunda atop Amity Park City Hall. They were on the east side of the building, above the front entrance and facing the enormous statue that depicted a determined-looking Danny Phantom—Danny's ghostly alter ego—with the world held aloft in his right hand. In the southeast corner of the balcony, Danny's father was showing off his latest… well,_ invention_ wasn't exactly the right word. _Crackpot idea_ came to mind. The crackpot idea in question was a huge searchlight, oriented so that its four-thousand-watt lamp pointed more or less in the direction of Fenton Works, Danny's parents' research lab/workshop that doubled as their family home. Affixed to the front of the lamp was a solid black metal scrim with the shape of a ghost cut out of the center of it.

Jack Fenton beamed in pride. "I call this baby the Phantom Signal. Whenever ghosts attack our fair city, Mayor Foley here can use it to call on our resident hero, Danny Phantom—" He reached over and, brushing aside Danny's friends, yanked a yelping Danny into a one-armed embrace. "—and, of course, his ghost-hunting gurus." By this, he meant himself and Danny's mother, who was standing between the searchlight and the wall of the rotunda.

Danny, who was seriously considering going intangible so he could slip out of his father's grasp and through the floor, looked to his mother in desperation. "Mom, please…"

"Jack…" She had that tone of admonition she always had whenever she had to restrain her husband from one of his nuttier schemes. "Don't you think it's a bit much?"

Danny threw his mother a grateful look. "Thank you!"

She continued as if Danny hadn't interrupted. "The last thing we want is for every metaphysical miscreant in town to be alerted. A Phantom Phone hotline would work much better, don't you think?"

Danny groaned. "Mom…"

On the surface, his parents seemed like a completely mismatched pair. Jack Fenton, a huge hulk of a man with a square chin, small blue eyes, close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair, and a penchant for wearing bright orange jumpsuits, was loud in every sense of the word. He was prone to an almost childlike excitability over, well, pretty much anything, but ghosts in particular. This combined with his mammoth size made him come off as somewhat oafish.

Maddie Fenton, in contrast, was a slender, graceful woman. Her auburn hair was styled into a short, no-nonsense bob with bangs that set off her warm, indigo eyes, which could look either deep blue or violet depending on the light. Skilled in almost everything she attempted, from martial arts to marksmanship to baking cookies, she was as accomplished as her husband was clumsy. Although she, too, always wore a jumpsuit, hers was a more sober blue and came off more catsuit than circus tent.

It only took a few seconds of talking with them, however, to see what a perfect match they were. Equally obsessed with ghosts and ghost-hunting since long before Danny was born, they were well-known in Amity Park for both their wacky inventions and their boundless exuberance for all things otherworldly, which sometimes masked how brilliant they really were. It was their creation of the first manmade portal into the Ghost Zone that had given Danny his powers in the first place. He'd been fourteen then, and for two years, the only humans who knew about his double life as Danny Phantom were Tucker, Sam, and his older sister, Jazz.

That all changed when an asteroid the size of a small moon was set on a collision course with Earth. When all attempts to destroy or divert the asteroid failed, Danny had convinced thousands of ghosts to band together at a specially designed antenna in Antarctica that would transfer their intangibility across the planet so the asteroid would pass harmlessly through. The Fentons, Tucker, Sam, Valerie and her dad, and about seventy other people from around the world had been manning a control tower at the antenna when, for a brief moment, they'd thought Danny had been killed in his attempt to recruit the other ghosts. In her grief, Jazz had revealed to her parents—and everyone else within earshot—that her brother was Danny Phantom, thus considerably expanding the circle of humans who knew his secret. Danny then confirmed it by changing from ghost to human in front of them all.

In the months since, Danny Phantom had become an international celebrity, but judging by Danny _Fenton's_ relative obscurity—and the fact that the government's not-so-secret anti-ghost unit, the Guys in White, had yet to ship him off to some hidden installation and turn him into a half-human guinea pig—his identity had not seemed to have leaked beyond the nearly eighty people who had seen him change in Antarctica. It was a good thing, because his mom and dad knowing was adjustment enough. Danny loved his parents, and mostly he was glad they knew the truth, but their enthusiasm to be involved in the ghost half of his life often resulted in things like, well, _this_.

Gritting his teeth, he took a stab at reining them in. "This is just…" _Insane. Ridiculous. Unbelievably lame._ "It's not really something we need."

His dad crossed his arms over his prodigious chest. "And when ghosts attack, what is Mayor Foley supposed to do?"

Danny exchanged chagrinned glances with Amity Park's improbable mayor. Tucker Foley, with his blue-green eyes peering out from behind wide glasses, the huge assortment of techno-gear stuffed into the pockets of his cargo pants, and that red beret he always wore jammed on top of his head, was more Steve Urkel than Barack Obama. And yet, he'd had the political savvy to parlay his own celebrity at being the technical wizard behind the intangibility transfer antenna into an appointment by the Amity Park City Council to fill the then-vacant office of mayor. This despite the fact that he was only sixteen and not even old enough to vote.

Now he displayed this savvy by opting for the time-honored political tradition of passing the buck. He held his hands up in sort of a_ don't-look-at-me-he's-not-_my_-dad_ gesture, and Danny turned back to his father with a sigh. "Knowing ghosts are attacking is really more of a Ghost-Sense thing than a mayor thing, Dad."

"You never know, Danny. What if some spectral scum attacks City Hall? How will the mayor contact you?"

"Uh…" Tucker produced his cell phone from his pocket. "Usually I just call him on his cell. He's number two on my speed dial."

Danny's father's face fell like a kid whose favorite toy had just been taken away. His lip sticking out in a pout, he kicked at the floor with the toe of his boot. "A regular old cell phone? Where's the excitement? The dramatic flair?"

"That usually comes when I'm actually fighting the ghosts," Danny said dryly. "And I really don't think City Hall is in any imminent danger of ghosts attacking."

A sudden stream of blue-tinged mist escaping from Danny's mouth contradicted him. He stifled a sigh at the irony. "Although I could be wrong about that."

The ghost arrived a second later, a blur of dark purple descending upon them from the sky, aiming straight for Danny as the whine of several ectoplasmic weapons powering up around him competed with the sort of whirring sound that accompanied Valerie suiting up in her armor. Danny hesitated for a split-second—his first instinct was still to avoid going ghost in front of his parents—before triggering the bright ring of light that transformed him from black-haired, blue-eyed, jeans-clad Danny Fenton into the white-haired, green-eyed, black-jumpsuited Danny Phantom. The delay cost him, and he didn't have enough time to go intangible or fly out of the way or even brace for impact before the ghost slammed into his chest, knocking him off his feet and onto the floor of the balcony.

"Get away from my son, you filthy putrid protoplasm!"

"Jack, wait! You might hit Danny!"

With a heave, Danny shoved the ghost off of him, sending it flying into the searchlight and switching it on. A ghost-shaped beam of light shone in the sky for a brief moment, causing Danny's dad to crow in delight, but then the real ghost's momentum knocked the searchlight into the low wall around the balcony. The impact shattered the lamp, and Danny quickly created an ectoplasm shield around it to keep shards of super-heated glass from flying everywhere. The mini explosion contained, Danny turned his attention back to the ghost, who was still crumpled on the floor in a mass of purple robes. Three weapons and two Fenton Thermoses were brought to bear as Danny finally got a look at it. A hooded cowl, clasped with a green skull, hid its face, revealing only glowing red eyes. Danny recognized the whole ensemble immediately.

"_Lydia_?" Sam, apparently, recognized her as well. Lydia was the ghost companion of the former Circus Gothica ringmaster, Freakshow.

Before Danny's parents could blast her, Danny flew over to Lydia and pulled her up off the floor. "What are you doing here? Is Freakshow—?" He sucked in a breath when her hood slipped down, revealing not the spike-haired, tattooed ghost he was expecting, but an emaciated, skull-like nightmare with sunken red eyes and long black hair. "Y-you're not Lydia!"

Whoever she was, she sagged against him, clearly more weakened than a single throw against the searchlight should have caused. Although her skeletal face and glowing red eyes made it hard to be sure, he got the distinct impression that she was relieved. In a raspy voice, she wheezed, "Ghost Boy…"

He gripped her by the shoulders. "Who are you?"

She seemed unable to answer, but pulled something out from under her robes and thrust it into his hands. It was a medallion, shaped like a golden gearwheel with the letters _CW_ emblazoned in neon blue across the gear's ebony center. It was still attached to her neck by a thick, black ribbon.

He blinked. "Clockwork?"

With bony green fingers, she closed his hand around the medallion. "He didn't… see… it coming." Then she yanked on the ribbon, breaking it. With the medallion in Danny's hand and no longer around her neck, she disappeared in a haze of blue light.


	2. Chapter 2

**Two**

**_City Hall_**  
_**Amity Park**_

"What just happened here?" Valerie's voice wasn't the least bit muffled, despite the fact that her face was completely covered by the faceplate of her black and red battle suit.

Danny looked at the medallion in his hand, a really bad feeling settling into the pit of his stomach. "I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with Clockwork." He held his hand up and let the medallion dangle from it so that everyone could see, although neither it nor the name_ Clockwork_ meant anything to anyone but Tucker and Sam.

"Clock what?" Valerie came closer to examine the medallion over Danny's shoulder.

"The Ghost Master of Time. This is his medallion. Wearing it can sort of take you out of the time stream so that you can travel outside of your own time."

"There's a Ghost Master of Time?" Danny's mother sounded disturbed, but his dad's face lit up.

"Lemme see that thing!" He grabbed it out of Danny's hand. "This lets you travel through time? That is so cool!"

"That, and it lets you sort of exist outside of time, so that if Clockwork stops time, you can keep going," Danny answered.

Danny's mom took the medallion from his father. "I don't like the idea of a ghost controlling _time_."

"It's okay, Mom. He's a good ghost. Mostly. Kind of a smug know-it-all, but good. He's like… a guardian or something."

"And how do you know this ghost? I don't remember you mentioning him before. You… you haven't actually traveled in _time_, have you, Danny?"

Danny winced. There was no way he wanted to get into how Clockwork had helped him stop a future version of himself who had ripped out his own humanity and become the most evil ghost on the planet. Nor did he want to tell her about how he'd gone into the past and screwed up her getting together with his dad. Clockwork had had to bail him out of that one by resetting time.

Sam came to his rescue. "Wait a second. If that ghost was wearing one of Clockwork's medallions and disappeared as soon as she took it off, she must be from some other time." Her black-lined, violet eyes widened. "I think I know who she was!"

Danny grinned. "Let me guess. You saw her picture in a book from Skulk and Lurk."

Skulk and Lurk was a goth bookstore and Sam, as she liked to remind everyone regularly, was a goth. Not that they needed reminding, despite the fact that she'd toned down her look somewhat since Danny and Tucker had first started hanging out with her in seventh grade. She didn't wear pierced jewelry other than earrings these days, and her chin-length hair was half-loose and half-pulled-back into a ponytail on top of her head rather than shaved on one side like it used to be. But it was still jet-black, and the black eyeliner, bluish-purple lipstick, and black clothes and boots that she favored didn't exactly scream Prom Queen. With her interest in all things dark and creepy, there were times when she seemed to know more about the Ghost Zone and ghost lore than Danny did.

She gave him an admonishing look. "Well, somebody has to look these ghosts up when we run across them."

Danny frowned. "When have we ever seen a ghost like this? Other than Lydia, with the whole hooded-cape thing."

"We haven't _seen_ a ghost like this before, but we have _heard_ about them. Remember when the Ghost King attacked Amity Park and we went to the other ghosts for help? Skulker told us how he was defeated before by a group of powerful ancient ghosts. The Ancient Ones. I looked them up after that, and they looked just like her, with glowing red eyes and purple, hooded robes. I even remember thinking at the time that they reminded me of Lydia, except her robe is red. I'll bet she's imitating them."

Tucker looked between Danny and Sam, worry creasing is forehead. "But why would Clockwork get a really powerful ghost from the past and send her after Danny? You don't think…?" He glanced over at Danny's parents and didn't finish the sentence.

Danny set his jaw. No way he was ever gonna become evil like that… _thing_ from the future. _An alternate future that's never gonna happen_, he reminded himself. _Not after I changed things so that he won't exist._

Without saying a word, Sam reached for his hand, interlocking her fingers with his. Her gaze met his a moment, sending a small jolt of electricity down his spine. Even after several months, he still would occasionally find himself surprised by the fact that he and Sam had become more than just best friends. In her eyes, he saw her silent faith in him that he'd already chosen a different path, one that led away from the future they'd visited where they'd fought that dark version of himself, and gratitude for her and every way she touched his life washed over him.

Valerie didn't notice the exchange. "She didn't seem all that powerful. One good toss and she was finished. I didn't even get a shot at her."

"Me, neither." Danny's dad stuck his lip out in another pout. "And I'd just upgraded the Fenton Bazooka, too."

Danny gave Sam's hand a final squeeze before letting go to focus back on the matter at hand. "She was weakened long before she got here." The bad feeling in his stomach returned. If she really was one of the Ancient Ones that defeated Pariah Dark, he didn't want to think about what could have gotten _her_.

"But why was she attacking you?" Danny's mother reiterated Tucker's question, but without the darker implications.

This, at least, was safer ground. "That's just it, Mom. I don't think she was attacking me. I think… I think she came to _warn_ me."

Tucker's frown deepened. "Warn you of what?"

"I'm not sure. I think maybe we should take a little trip out to Clockwork's Tower and find out what's up." He forced a routine tone into his voice, even as the ghost's words played over and over in his head, sounding more ominous by the second. _He didn't see it coming…_

Danny's father's eyes lit up, and he pumped a meaty fist into the air. "YES! Road trip! I'll fire up the new and improved Specter Speeder!"

The four teenagers exchanged horrified looks. Another downfall of Danny's parents knowing his secret was that instead of just sneaking off whenever he had to fight ghosts or go into the Ghost Zone, he now had to keep his parents informed about what he was up to. While it was nice to have more backup in a fight, not to mention the relief at not having to constantly think up lies to explain his whereabouts and why he so often missed curfew, the idea of being crammed into the Specter Speeder for any length of time with his father was not appealing. His mind raced as he tried to think up a reason why he, Sam, Tucker, and Valerie should go alone when, to his surprise, his mother thought one up for him.

"Jack," she began in that same scolding tone. "That broken searchlight isn't going to clean itself up."

Danny could have kissed her. His father, on the other hand, looked crestfallen. "But… I didn't break it!" He pointed at Danny. "He's the one who threw the ghost into it!"

"But it's your Phantom Signal, and I really don't think the mayor is interested."

"You got that right, Mrs. F." Tucker gave a vigorous nod of his head.

"Okay, then," Danny said quickly, wanting to get them out of there before his dad came up with an excuse to go with them anyway. "The four of us will go see Clockwork, and we'll let you know what we find."

"And I'm going to run some tests on this medallion," his mother said, her fist curling around its ribbon.

"I tried hacking into it before," Tucker told her. "I couldn't get very far."

Her eyes lit up at the challenge. "All the same, I think I'll give it a shot."

"Okay, then." Danny pushed his friends toward the stairwell. "We'll be on our way."

His mother, still looking at the medallion, gave an absent-minded wave. "Just don't be too late, sweetie. It is a school night."

* * *

**_The Ghost Zone_**

It had been a long time since Danny had been anything less than completely at home in the Ghost Zone, with its eerie swirling green-and-black "sky," random floating chunks of rock, like islands suspended in the abyss, that were the domains of individual ghosts, and the thousands upon thousands of glowing purple doors that led even deeper into the Ghost Zone's infinite realms. Tucker and Sam had also spent enough time here for it to be pretty routine to them. Valerie, on the other hand, had only been into the Ghost Zone a few times and was still a little twitchy about it. "This place gives me the creeps."

Sam seemed to take this as an affirmation. "I know. Isn't it great?"

Valerie scoffed. "You would think 'creepy' is a good thing."

Danny cringed, keeping his eyes trained forward. Tucker was piloting the Specter Speeder II, and Danny was beside him, navigating, while the girls were sitting behind them. When his father had built this Specter Speeder after the original had been destroyed during Danny's first attempt to get the ghosts to help them save the world from the asteroid, he'd made the passenger compartment bigger and more comfortable, with three rows of swiveling bucket seats instead of just the one bench seat. As Tuck drove, Danny kept half his attention on where they were going and half on the conversation behind him. Sam and Val got along okay for the most part, but it was a tenuous friendship, more truce than actual affection, especially on Sam's part, and it made Danny nervous when they bickered.

It was really no surprise that the two of them had a hard time finding common ground. When Valerie was in her battle suit, like now, they seemed at least somewhat similar. Both were smart and athletic, tough ghost fighters who didn't take any crap from anyone, and they both always had his back. But when Valerie's suit was… wherever it was that Valerie's suit went when she wasn't using it, they were as dissimilar as two people could be. Sam was pale; Valerie was dark-skinned. Sam's hair was short and straight; Val's was long and curly. Sam was slender; Val was curvy. Sam disdained anything popular or mainstream; Val had been a member of the in-crowd until her father had lost all his money and they'd had to move to a run-down apartment in Elmerton. Sam was embarrassed by her parents' extreme wealth and never talked about their social status; Val was embarrassed by her father's bankruptcy and wanted desperately to get out of Elmerton and back into the upper echelons of Amity Park society.

Sam was Danny's girlfriend, and Val was, for all intents and purposes, his ex.

To be fair to both of them, it wasn't really his and Val's past that made it difficult for Sam to accept her readily into their group. Not that it exactly helped, but it wasn't the main problem. The main problem was that Valerie had spent most of her two years as a ghost hunter trying to destroy Danny Phantom. Even when she and Danny Fenton had been almost sort of dating, she'd been obsessed with hunting down his alter ego, unaware that they were one and the same. It was only after Antarctica, when she'd found out who he really was, that she had given up her vendetta against him once and for all.

Sam, in contrast, had not only known from the beginning that he was Danny Phantom, she and Tucker had both been there in the Fenton Works lab the day the accident with the Ghost Portal had made him half ghost in the first place. Fiercely protective of the people she cared about, Sam could not easily forgive Valerie for the vehemence with which she'd gone after Danny Phantom. After Antarctica, she'd accepted Val into the group because Danny had asked her to and, for the most part, she did try to get along with her, but it was not an entirely comfortable friendship, and there were times when Sam delighted in giving Val a hard time.

Fortunately, this didn't seem to be one of those times. Sam's response was, for once, completely devoid of sarcasm. "To be honest, I really didn't want to come in here the first time, either. But you get used to it after a while, and it's actually pretty cool."

"If you say so." Valerie sounded anything but convinced.

Relieved that an argument didn't seem imminent, Danny focused his full attention back out the windshield, where he could see the skull-like cave that marked Skulker's Lair coming into view. "It's way past Skulker's Lair, Tucker. Can't you go any faster?"

"You wanna drive?" Tucker snapped, peevish.

Sam leaned forward over the arm of Danny's seat, resting her hand on his shoulder. "Okay, what aren't you telling us? You're awfully edgy."

He swiveled his chair around, forcing Sam back into her own seat. "I didn't want to say anything in front of my parents because I didn't want them to worry, but I have a really bad feeling about this. If that ghost really was one of those 'Ancient Ones' that were so powerful, it can't be good news that something beat up on her enough that she could barely speak."

"'Barely' speak?" Valerie asked. "You said you think she came to warn you about something. Did she say something the rest of us didn't hear?"

Danny nodded. "She said, 'He didn't see it coming.'"

Sam frowned. "Who didn't see what coming?"

"That's just it. I don't know. But if the 'he' is Clockwork, I don't _even_ wanna know what the 'it' was that he couldn't see coming."

Tucker spared him a glance over his shoulder, his eyes wide. "Dude, are you serious? Clockwork's the Master of Time. He sees _everything_. What could he possibly not see coming?"

"I don't know. That's why this whole thing gives me the creeps. And why we need to get there sooner rather than later."

Tucker pushed his foot down on the accelerator. "Yeah, I see your point. Just tell me the Ghost Zone doesn't have some kind of speed limit, 'cause I really don't want Walker coming after us."

Danny didn't say anything. The Ghost Zone's self-appointed enforcer of his own arbitrary rules wasn't exactly top on his list of concerns at the moment. He kept his eyes on the window, watching for Clockwork's Tower to appear out of the green gloom.

When it finally did, he sucked in his breath.

Sam gasped. "That's not it, is it? That can't be it."

Danny swallowed. "That's it, all right. Or what's left of it, anyway." Which wasn't much. What had once been Clockwork's enormous grandfather-clock-shaped tower, with its random gears and cog-like bridges protruding at odd angles, was now little more than a smoldering mountain of rubble.


	3. Chapter 3

**Three**

**_Clockwork's Tower_  
_The Ghost Zone_**

Danny felt like he was going to be sick. They were picking their way through the debris in what used to be the entryway to Clockwork's Tower. Smoke was rising from the ruins, and in some places, a few remaining licks of blue and green flames could still be seen. Danny used his ice powers to put them out.

"What was this place?" Valerie asked. The only one among them who had never met Clockwork, nor seen his impressive Tower, she seemed to have an easier time finding her voice than the rest of them.

Tucker made a stab at answering. "It used to be this big, giant, clock thing. Clockwork watched over time from here. He had this sort of viewscreen that showed all these different times, and he had the power to make more wherever he wanted. You could even travel through them, like portals. But only if you were wearing one of those medallions."

"So if he could see any time, how did he not see this?"

Danny closed his eyes. That was the million-dollar question, wasn't it? _The Observants look at time like they're watching a parade_, Clockwork had told him once, referring to the creatures that were sort of the passive watchers of ghost activity in the Human World and supposedly Clockwork's "employers." _One thing after another, passing by in sequence right in front of them. I see the parade from above. All the twists and turns it might—or might not—take._ "He should have known. He doesn't just see one future; he sees… all the potential futures. There's just no way this should have happened. There's no way it _could_ have happened."

"And yet…" Sam's voice sounded hollow.

"Where are the viewscreens anyway?" Tucker asked. "I don't see anything that looks liked wrecked tech."

Danny looked up to where half a wall of the Tower reached into the green mist above his head. "His main… control room, I guess, was up at the top, in the bell tower. It doesn't look safe up there, though. I don't think the staircase is even standing anymore."

Valerie looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "Hel_lo_. You can fly. I have a jet sled. The two of us can go check it out."

"Yeah, but really carefully. The Ghost Zone is kinda backwards from the Human World. You and Sam and Tuck can go intangible here, but I can't, not without changing back to human form. And I can't fly that high unless I'm in ghost form, so…" He looked up at the crumbled wall. "If the thing comes crashing down on me, I'll get buried under it."

"Don't be such a big baby, Phantom. Race you to the top." With a click of her heels, a black, rocket-powered sled formed under her feet. She kicked down on the throttle, and was off.

Danny sighed. Normally, he didn't mind Valerie's cat-and-mouse games. It was the leftover remnants of their days as adversaries, and there were parts of that he'd actually enjoyed. But right now, with everything as it was, his heart was too heavy in his chest for any banter to come. He kept picturing Clockwork and the strange way he'd mutate from buck-toothed child, to broad-chested young man, to gaunt old man with a flowing white beard. He was like a ghostly version of the New Year's Baby and Father Time all in one. But where was he? Had he escaped? If he had, wouldn't he have come for Danny himself rather than sending one of the Ancient Ones? And if he hadn't, what might they find up in the bell tower?

Suppressing a shudder, Danny flew up after Valerie and in through a gaping hole in the wall of the Tower where the face of the clock used to be. The bell was still there, although it was cracked and blistered from the flames and looked like it might fall at any moment. Along the part of the wall that was still standing was an empty pegboard from which used to hang more of Clockwork's medallions. There was a gear or two still in place, but most of them had fallen into the rubble below. There was no sign of the big portal/viewscreen through which Clockwork could both view and travel to any time and place he wished. There was also no sign of the time master himself, nor of the staff with the stopwatch on it that he could use to freeze, restart, and reset time.

"Nothing much up here," Valerie said.

"No," Danny agreed. "Whatever did this did a pretty thorough job. There's nothing left." He landed lightly on the floor and leaned his hand against a part of the wall that looked somewhat stable but, when he touched it, it zapped him with a sort of electrical shock. "OW!" He shook his hand out, trying to get the tingling out of his fingers.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I just got shocked or something."

"Shocked? By what?"

"By the wall." He looked at it, frowning. "Why would the wall shock me?"

Valerie landed beside him and stepped off her sled. Tentatively, she reached out and touched the wall with her own gloved hand. "Hm. Whatever it is doesn't affect me."

"Could your gloves be protecting you? They are pretty…" He trailed off, not quite sure how to finish that sentence. Valerie's suit was just something he couldn't quite comprehend.

She shrugged, and without any warning, the suit disappeared in a swirl of pink light, leaving her standing in her street clothes. She looked oddly vulnerable like that, in the Ghost Zone without her battle armor. Touching the wall again, she shook her head. "Nothing." Another swirl of light brought the suit back.

"I wonder…" Danny morphed himself into human form, and touched the wall again. As soon as his hand made contact, he got another unpleasant zap. It wasn't quite as strong, but it was still enough to really hurt. "OW! Okay, so it affects me in human form, too. Note to self—stop touching the walls." He changed back into his ghost form. "Can we get out of here now?"

"Fine by me. There's nothing up here to see." She got back onto her sled, and the two of them returned to the ground level where Sam and Tucker were still picking their way through the wreckage trying to find any clue that would tell them what had happened here.

"Anything?" Tucker asked as Danny and Valerie alighted beside him. Valerie kicked her heels again, and her sled disappeared. One of these days, Danny decided, he was going to have to find Technus, the ghost who had created the suit out of the destroyed remains of an older version Vlad Masters had given her, and force him to explain exactly how the thing worked.

Danny shook his head. "No viewscreens, no medallions, no Clockwork. But there's something weird with the walls up there. Every time I touched them, I got shocked, kinda like what a Specter Deflector does. It didn't do anything to Valerie, but I got shocked whether I was in ghost form or human form, just like the Specter Deflector."

"I never did get that," Sam said. "Doesn't the Specter Deflector operate on the same principle as a Ghost Shield? You can walk through those just fine in human form."

Danny shrugged. "I dunno. I still have an ecto-signature, even in human form, but it's weaker. Maybe the Ghost Shield only affects strong ecto-signatures, but the Specter Deflector is more finely tuned? You'd have to ask my parents, though. On second thought, don't. If it isn't something simple like that, my mom will come up with some sort of series of experiments to run on me to figure out why they affect me differently."

"But why would the walls of Clockwork's Tower act like a Specter Deflector?" Tucker asked. "You never had any problems like that here before, did you?"

"Nope."

"Is it just the walls?"

"I don't know. I didn't really touch anything else."

Tucker bent down and picked up a bent piece of metal. It looked a little like part of a cog. "Think fast!" He tossed the chunk in Danny's direction.

Out of reflex, Danny reached out to catch the piece of metal, but as soon as it hit his hand, he got another shock. Dropping the chunk like it burned him, he shook his hand and glared at Tucker. "Thanks a lot!"

"So it's not just the walls. Everything from the tower is zapping you. Weird."

"No, wait. I was standing on the floor, and that was fine."

"Okay. So, the walls and cogs and junk from the tower zap you, but not the floor. Even weirder."

Sam bent down and picked up the cog piece again. She turned the chunk of metal over in her hand, studying it. "Remember when we first borrowed the Infi-Map and we went through that one portal into seventeenth century Salem, Massachusetts? Remember those blood blossoms they used to ward off spirits? Do you think it could be something like that?"

"I don't know. But the blood blossoms affected me even just being near me. It was like Superman with kryptonite. This only seems to be a problem if I touch it, like the Specter Deflector."

Sam waved the cog piece in his face. "Anything?"

"Hey! Stop that!" He batted her hand away, being careful not to touch the cog itself.

"Okay, so not like blood blossoms. Hey, what about these?" Sam held up her hand, and Danny saw two medallions hanging from it. "We found a couple medallions down here, but that's about it. Think they'll shock you, too?"

Danny folded his arms. "Okay, so is this a game now? I get to touch things just to see if they zap me into oblivion? I think I'll pass."

"We do need to know what's doing this and why," Valerie said.

"She's right, dude."

Danny scowled at them. "Great. Three against one." Annoyed, he grabbed the medallions from Sam's hand. Sure enough, he got another jolt and dropped them. "Happy?"

Tucker bent down and retrieved the medallions. "Okay. So we don't know what happened to Clockwork, most of the tech seems to be gone, and everything Danny touches shocks him. What does that mean?"

Danny looked around him. "I have no idea. What could have done this? And why?"

"Not sure about the what, but the why might be to control time," Sam suggested.

"The fact that all the tech is gone would support that theory." Tucker held up the two medallions in his hand. "Clockwork had dozens of these, but we only found two. Whoever did this must have wanted them and the viewscreen."

"Don't forget that 'time-out' staff of his." Sam hugged herself as she gazed up at the ruined tower. "But look at this place! It looks like a war zone! How could Clockwork have missed something this huge? About himself?"

Valerie put her hands on her hips. "Maybe that's just it. If he's some sort of time guardian, maybe he's so busy watching other people's pasts and futures, he couldn't see his own."

Danny frowned. "Maybe. But I'm not so sure whoever did this just wanted to control time. Clockwork was a pretty unique ghost. I don't think his time powers were all in the viewscreens or the medallions or even his staff. It doesn't seem like even with all that stuff, just anyone could control time."

"Let's hope not." Tucker put the medallions around his neck. "But maybe your mom can figure out why everything's zapping you."

"At least that's something," Danny agreed.

"Are we done here, then? 'Cause I'm about ready to get out of the Ghost Zone," Valerie said.

"Yeah, I guess there's nothing much more—hey, what's that?" Danny saw something on the ground near Sam's feet, glinting in the eerie green glow from the mist that swirled around them. "Do you guys see that?"

Sam nodded. "What is it?" She bent down and retrieved the object. "Looks like a shard of something that got blasted apart. Maybe they didn't take all the tech after all."

Tucker took the white and green piece of whatever it was from her and examined it. "This isn't Clockwork's; it's _Fenton_ Works. It's part of a Fenton Thermos."

"A Fenton Thermos?" Danny looked at the piece back over Tucker's shoulder, but it was too small for him to tell what it was. "How can you tell?"

Tucker arched an eyebrow at him. "Please. Sam knows her creepy legends; I know my tech gear. That's part of the containment cell of a Fenton Thermos. Look." He pulled his backpack off his shoulders and dug out his own Thermos and held it next to the broken piece for comparison. The latter was twisted and bent, but Danny could tell that Tucker was right.

"That's weird. What would a Fenton Thermos be doing at Clockwork's Tower?"

Sam took the shard from Tucker and turned it over in her hands. "If it was ghosts who did this, maybe he was using it to fight back?"

"A Fenton Thermos?" Valerie looked skeptical. "If this ghost has all of time at his command, I don't think a Fenton Thermos would be the first thing he'd reach for."

Sam gave the piece of Thermos back to Tucker and crossed her arms. "Okay, then what do you think it's doing here?"

Danny didn't like the direction this was heading. Stepping in between the girls, he cut off further discussion. "It doesn't matter. There's nothing more to see here. Let's go."

* * *

**_The Ghost Zone_**

He watched the four children on Clockwork's huge, cog-shaped viewscreen, his lip curled in displeasure.

This was not good.

He'd made a critical error in allowing the Ancient One to escape. Granted, he'd been preoccupied at the time. Mere moments after she'd made her escape, a new and unexpected threat had arisen. He'd subdued this new opponent, although with a surprising amount of difficulty, and he still had no idea where it had come from and only an inkling of an idea who it might be or how he might use such a surprising creature for his own ends. But that was a puzzle for another day, when he'd unlocked more of the secrets of Clockwork's apparatuses. The more immediate problem was what the Ancient One had done. She'd seemed so insignificant at the time. A single ghost. What could she do?

A lot, apparently. Like warn the boy. Now he and his insipid friends not only knew that the Tower had fallen, but they'd found evidence that could lead them back to him. Not good. The one thing that was keeping them from figuring it all out just with what they already had was the fact that they were under the mistaken assumption that he was gone for good. That was the critical error that would cost them dearly.

And then there was Valerie's presence with them, which was unexpected. When exactly did she become his ally? She'd always hated ghosts, and him more than others. And now she was trooping around through the Ghost Zone with him? A lot had changed in the time he'd been gone.

This, at least, could work in his favor. Valerie had always been one of his favorite playthings. Putting her into the mix would make everything that much sweeter. But it was too early. He wasn't ready for them yet, and here the child already knew about Clockwork. If he started poking around the Ghost Zone now, it could ruin everything.

He looked at Clockwork's staff in his hand. Time. He should have all the time in the world—this one or the Human World. And yet, he'd only managed to master a few paltry parlor tricks. The time viewer, the medallions—none of it helped him actually _see_ time, let alone control it. He'd need a few more days at least. Then maybe he'd have cracked enough of Clockwork's devices to manage a few well-placed illusions. It would be enough, but not if the child got curious too soon.

What he needed was a distraction; something that would keep the boy preoccupied so that the goings-on in the Ghost Zone wouldn't even be a blip on the radar.

All he needed was a little… _time_.


	4. Chapter 4

**Four**

_**The Manson residence  
Amity Park **_

Sam sat in the passenger seat of Danny's car as he drove her home. Well, it wasn't really his car. It was Jazz's old car, the one she'd had before she'd saved up to buy the hot little red convertible she drove now. That car had gone with her to college, but her parents had kept the first one for Danny to drive once he got his license. It was an ugly, boxy thing, but it got good gas mileage, which Sam liked.

And better yet, it was pink.

Well, not pink, exactly. More of a pinkish-lavender. Normally, Sam would have loathed the color, and when it had been Jazz's car, she'd wanted to gag whenever she saw it. But something about it being Danny's car, about seeing a boy drive something so… _pink_, made her love it. Danny, naturally, despised it and wouldn't drive it to school or anywhere else where other kids might see him, at least not until he'd saved up enough to have it painted. But pinkness notwithstanding, it was a car, and he had a license he was itching to use. At least he'd managed to scrape off Jazz's lame _Have you hugged your inner child today? _bumper sticker.

Tonight was not the time to taunt him about the pink car, however. He had barely said two words since they'd returned from the Ghost Zone. She put her hand on his arm. "I'm sure Clockwork's okay. We'll figure out what happened and we'll find him."

Danny nodded, gripping the steering wheel. "I know. But in the meantime, who's gonna be next? Someone in the Ghost Zone? The Human World?" He glanced at Sam. "We might have another Pariah Dark on our hands."

"At least we know it isn't actually Pariah, and the Ring of Rage was locked away with him," Sam said. They'd gone by Pariah's Keep on their way out of the Ghost Zone just to make sure he was still locked in his sarcophagus.

"That's not much comfort. The Crown of Fire is still floating around out there somewhere." Danny glanced at his watch. "But on the bright side, you'll be getting home before curfew. That's two weeks straight. It's gotta be helping me score some points with your parents."

Sam wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue. "Ugh, not this again. I really wish you would get off this kick of trying to impress my parents."

"What? I want them to like me. Is that so terrible?"

"Actually, yes. In order for my parents to like you, you would have to be a completely bland, lifeless sheep. And then _I_ wouldn't like you."

He gave her a strange look. "So you're saying you only like me because they don't? Because it bugs them that my family's a bunch of nutjob ghost hunters? 'Cause I don't wanna be your private rebellion."

She let out an exasperated grunt. "That's not what I said, and you know that's not true. I just don't like it when you suck up to them."

"They're your parents."

"So?"

"So, they once took out a _restraining order_ on me. And that was when we were just friends. Now that we're dating, it'd be nice if they didn't completely hate my guts." They arrived at her house, and he pulled up to the curb near her front steps. Putting the car into park and turning off the engine, he moved to face her. "You're really important to me, Sam. I just… I'm hoping to be around awhile, so I should probably make an effort to get along with them."

She looked into his blue eyes, and it struck her how different they were from the bright green color they became when he went ghost. Either way, they were beautiful. "You're really important to me, too," she told him, and when their lips met, she was almost overwhelmed by how much of an understatement that was. How was it possible that he felt this way about her, too? For so long, she'd wanted to be more than friends, but he'd never seemed to notice. In typical guy-friend fashion, he'd acted as if he were largely unaware that she was, in fact, a girl, always looking instead towards the cheerleaders or girls like Valerie with their long, flowing hair and perfect figures. And now, here they were, in his sister's ridiculous pink car parked in front of her parents' house, _kissing_, and he was _hoping to be around awhile._

A line she remembered from _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ popped into her head. _How about forever? Forever work for you?_

Sam felt her breath coming in shorter and shorter gasps as the kiss grew more intense. She started to pull back before things could get too heated, but Danny beat her to it, breaking it off with a jerk of his head as if it were a physically painful thing to do. "I… should get you in before your parents come out with the pitchforks and torches."

The mention of her parents was almost enough to make her forget that she'd thought it was smartest to stop now, too. But not quite. With a reluctant nod, she opened the passenger door, grabbed her fuzzy purple spider-shaped backpack from the floor between her feet, and climbed out of the car while Danny exited on his side. They met again in front of the car and walked up her porch steps hand-in-hand. She was about to let go so she could dig her keys out of her backpack when the door opened, pouring light from inside onto the front porch, silhouetting Sam's father standing in the doorway. Danny dropped her hand like it had burned him, and Sam scowled at him in irritation.

"Hello, Mr. Manson!" There was an unnatural cheerfulness in Danny's voice that deepened Sam's scowl. "Just seeing Sam to the door after bringing her home. At ten o'clock. Right on the dot."

Sam elbowed Danny in the side. "Okay, I think he gets the point."

Her father stepped over the doorway so that the light from the porch illuminated his features. He was a tall man and, like Sam, he was thin and fair, but that was where the similarity ended. His blond hair was combed up into a big pompadour, and his blue eyes and wide grin were perpetually cheerful, unless he was wrinkling his nose in distaste over Sam's clothes or interests or friends. His own clothes—a white, buttoned-down shirt under an argyle sweater vest and khaki Dockers—made him a virtual poster boy for J. Crew. He gave Danny a scrutinizing look, like he was searching for something to criticize before granting him a sort of weary half smile. "Thank you, Danny."

"No problem, Mr. Manson, sir. Well, I'll be on my way now. See you at school tomorrow, Sam."

"Hold on there a minute, son."

Danny stopped, a look of fear crossing his face before he schooled his features into another fake grin. Sam had to resist the urge to smack it off of him.

"Mrs. Manson and I would like to invite you to a family dinner at our country club on Friday night. Would you be available?"

Sam's and Danny's jaws both dropped in unison. Never in the history of, well, _ever_ had her father invited one of her friends to the club. It wasn't that he was a snob, not really. Her parents had never had a problem with Sam associating with people who weren't as wealthy as they were, or who didn't move in their social circle. It was the fact that her friends—or their families—weren't _normal_ enough that bothered them. Tucker probably would have qualified, had it not been for the dressing-like-Sam-to-cover-for-her-while-she-skipped-first-period incident, but so long as Danny had the last name of Fenton and lived in a house with a giant Ops Center built onto the roof and a Ghost Portal built into the basement, he would be barely tolerated at best. Certainly not invited into the hallowed inner sanctum of the Amity Country Club. Not that it mattered, since Sam generally avoided the place like vampires avoided the sun.

Danny recovered from the shock first, a wide, enthusiastic smile—this one completely genuine—spreading across his face. "Y-yes, sir! That would be awesome! Er, I mean… I would be honored."

"All righty, then. We'll pick you up at six o'clock at your house on Friday. Have a good night."

"You, too, sir."

As soon as Sam and her father were inside and he shut the door behind them, she rounded on him. "What was that all about?"

He raised his eyebrow at her. "Your mother and I decided if you're going to keep seeing this boy, we should probably at least get to know him better. I would have thought you'd be pleased."

Sam put her hands on her hips. "If this is some kind of lame attempt at reverse psychology, it won't work."

Her father rolled his eyes at her. "Really, Sammy-kins, where do you get your cynicism?"

The whir of a small electronic motor announced the entrance of Sam's grandmother, Ida, on her mobility scooter. "You're up to something, Jeremy, being nice to that boy. You and Pam both. And I'll figure out what it is."

He sighed. "Asked and answered." To Ida, he said, "You're the one who's been saying we should give the boy a chance, Mother."

"Well, yes, but when have you ever listened to me?"

"I'm listening to you now." He turned back to Sam. "Samantha, you know your mother and I have… concerns about this boy and his family. We don't like all that weird ghost stuff they're involved in." He said the word _ghost_ like a Republican might say the word_ liberal_.

"Well, I _do_ like all that weird ghost stuff."

"I know you do. So your mother and I are going to try and make an effort. And really, aside from the ghost craziness, there are worse boys you could be dating." He shuddered. "Much worse." Then, he smiled and patted her on the head like she was a puppy. "But it's after ten and you need a full eight hours of beauty sleep to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for school, so off to bed with you!" He gave her a small shove up the stairs as he himself headed for the kitchen.

Sam stood with her hand on the railing, watching her father until he disappeared through the kitchen door, then she looked down at her grandma. With her white hair pulled back in a tight bun, glasses that looked like Tucker's, and the way she sat hunched over on her scooter, Ida Manson looked deceptively frail. Sam knew better, however. She was quite the spitfire when she wanted to be, and she was the one person in the family whose opinion Sam valued. "What do you think, Grandma? Is he on the level?"

She snorted. "Not on your life."

"You'll come to dinner with us, won't you?"

"Well, I would, but Friday's my 'Mah-Jongg' night." She flashed Sam a conspiratorial grin. _Mah-Jongg _was code for_ poker,_ but she always told Sam's parents she was playing Mah-Jongg to keep from getting lectures about the evils of gambling.

"Oh, shoot. I forgot. Well, I'll have to just keep an eye on them myself, then."

"Never you mind about them, _bubbeleh_. That Danny's a good kid, no matter what your parents think. Don't let them convince you otherwise."

Sam narrowed her eyes. "Oh, I won't. But I hope they get back to normal pretty soon. All this warmth and kindness is giving me the creeps."


	5. Chapter 5

**Five**

_**Casper High School cafeteria**  
**Amity Park**_

Tucker stared at Danny across the table, his jaw hanging open. Putting his fork down on his lunch tray, he took his finger and twisted it in his ear as if he were cleaning it out. "The cafeteria must be even noisier than usual, 'cause I coulda sworn you just said Sam's dad invited you to dinner at the country club."

A grin split Danny's face. "That's exactly what I said."

Sam, however, didn't look quite as pleased. "Oh, for the love of… would you get off it already? It's dinner at a stuffy country club full of stuffy people, not the Nobel Peace Prize."

Valerie sighed, her chin resting on her hand. "I remember when we used to belong to the stuffy country club full of stuffy people. I miss it."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Ugh. You can have it."

"I don't care about the club, Sam," Danny said. "It's the invitation that matters. From your _parents_."

"I'm telling you, Danny. They're plotting something."

Tucker looked at her over the tops of his glasses. "They're your parents, not Skulker and Ember. Maybe they're just warming up to Danny."

She shuddered visibly. "Don't even joke."

"See? I was right!" Danny pointed an accusing finger at her. "Everything's gotta be a rebellion with you. Why can't you just be happy that your parents and I are trying to get along?"

"Because it's all fake. You don't act like you around them, and they're… I don't know what they're doing. Probably trying to use reverse psychology. They figure if they approve of you, I'll wanna dump you."

"Well, if that's true, it sounds like it's working. You're letting this whole thing make you nuts."

"And you're letting it make you into some sort of pod person. 'Yes, Mr. Manson, sir. It would be an honor, sir.'"

"Since when is being polite a crime?"

"It isn't, but caring what everyone else thinks is. It's like Dash's party all over again."

Valerie leaned closer to Tucker. "Think maybe we should give them some space?"

Tucker rolled his eyes. "Nah. Give 'em a few minutes. It'll blow over." He arched an eyebrow at her. "Unless you _wanna_ go somewhere a little more quiet."

She laughed. "You are such a flirt, Tucker Foley! If you're not careful, I'm gonna start thinking you're serious."

"Ha ha. We wouldn't want that, would we?" Tucker took a hasty sip of his milk. It'd been worth a shot, anyway.

As he predicted, it only took another minute or so for Danny and Sam's spat to blow over, and the topic turned to Clockwork and the attack on his tower. Danny leaned over the table and spoke quietly so they wouldn't be overheard—not that anyone at Casper High took any interest in them anyway. "I gave that piece of the Fenton Thermos and those medallions to my parents to see if they could figure out why everything was shocking me and what the Thermos had been used for."

"Did they find anything?"

"Well, the Thermos piece was too small. And the medallions… that was weird. She said they were coated in some sort of residue, but whatever it was is unstable. By the time she could run any tests, it had sort of broken down into plain old soot, and the medallions don't shock me anymore. Neither does the Thermos piece."

Tucker frowned. "So whatever was zapping you just wore off?"

"I guess. Anyway, she's gonna see if she can find out exactly what the soot is, but she really wants active samples if we can get them, so I'm gonna go back after school and see if it's worn off of everything, or just the medallions. If it hasn't, maybe I can find enough of the stuff and get it back to my mom before it breaks down so she can figure out what it is. And I wanna see if I can find a bigger chunk of the Thermos, too. You guys in? If the Specter Deflector effect hasn't worn off, I'll need help bringing samples back."

"I'm in," Sam said.

Tucker shook his head. "Sorry, dude. I got mayor stuff to do."

"I've gotta work," Val said.

"Ooh, now I'm craving a Nasty Burger." Tucker licked his lips. "I could come by for dinner during your break, if you want."

Valerie shrugged. "Fine by me."

Danny looked at Sam. "Guess it's just you and me for the Ghost Zone, then."

"You always take me to the most _romantic_ places."

"You're a goth. The Ghost Zone is to you like dinner at the Ritz is to everyone else."

"This is true."

"And speaking of fine cuisine…" Valerie looked down at her tray. "I've had about all the turkey surprise I can stand, and I need to go by my locker before next period."

"Yeah, I'm done, too." Danny stood up and grabbed his tray. They all joined him, first dumping what was left of their lunches into the trash, then piling their trays on the service cart before heading out down the hall.

As they walked, Valerie turned to Danny. "So you actually told your parents what happened to the clock tower?"

"Well, a sort of watered-down version, anyway. I don't want them to start worrying every time I go into the Ghost Zone. But yeah. The whole point of them knowing my identity is that I don't have to keep hiding this stuff from them. And they are pretty good scientists. A little… overzealous, maybe. But smart—in their own weird way. There's a good chance my mom will be able to figure out why that Thermos was there if I can find a big enough piece for her to check out."

"I wish my dad was as okay with all this stuff as your parents. He still freaks out about me using my suit."

Sam hoisted her spider backpack over her shoulder. "Can you blame him? The suit is kinda freaky. I mean, the first one was scary enough, coming from Vlad and everything, but this one that Technus put together? Do you even know how it works?"

Valerie crossed her arms, defiant. "I know what I need to know. It takes me where I want to go, and shoots what I want it to shoot. What more is there?"

"Sam does have a point, Val," Tucker said. "I could take a look at that baby for—"

"NO."

"Fine." Tucker slumped his shoulders. Shot down twice by the same girl in the space of five minutes. _Techno-geeks never get any love._

Valerie still looked irritated. "And you all are ones to talk. Danny's parents only know because Jazz told everyone when she thought we were all goners, and neither of you two have told your parents anything, have you?" She waved her hand at Tucker and Sam.

"I figure it'll be safe to tell my parents when I'm eighteen and they can't ground me to keep me from helping," Tucker said.

Danny smirked at him. "Come on, Tuck. You're the mayor. Can't you pass some sort of Teen Ghost Fighters law or something?"

"If it were that easy to just pass any law I wanted, don't you think we'd have Miniskirt Fridays by now?"

"Well, if you ever do get that one passed, just remember it was my idea."

Valerie and Sam exchanged exasperated looks, then Valerie asked, "How about you, Sam? Why don't you tell your parents?"

Danny and Sam reacted loudly and in unison. "Are you _nuts_?" Then Danny continued. "I've finally gotten to the point where they're giving me a chance, and you want me to tell them I'm half ghost? They'd install a ghost shield in their house and make Sam wear a Specter Deflector so I could never come near her again."

"Specter Deflector as chastity belt. Interesting concept." That earned Tucker a punch in the arm from Sam.

Valerie's eyes glinted with mischief. "Ooh, Sam, think of the rebellion points you'd get for dating a ghost."

Tucker snickered into his hand while Danny glared daggers at Val. Sam, however, looked truly horrified. "That is the worst idea _ever_. They have issues with the Fentons just because they come into _contact_ with ghosts. If they knew Danny _was_ one? They'd think it was their 'moral obligation' to 'warn' everyone, and the next thing you know, the Guys in White would be knocking down Danny's door."

"Again." Danny rolled his eyes.

"Exactly. The last thing they need is _more_ encouragement." Sam shook her head. "No way I'm ever telling my folks, not until the Anti-Ecto Control Act is repealed and the Guys in White shut down."

Now it was Tucker's turn to glare at Valerie. "You had to get her started, didn't you? Now we're gonna have to listen to the whole rant about ghost rights and how the Guys in White are like the secret police."

"Not _like_ the secret police. They _are_ the secret police. They have total free rein to do whatever they want—to ghosts _and_ humans—so long as they can claim they're acting under the Anti Ghost Codes." Sam's eyes flashed dangerously. "And Danny's your best friend, Tucker. I would think you'd take this stuff a little more seriously. If they knew he was a half-ghost, they'd gut him like a lab rat."

"I'm right here, you know." Then Danny reached over and put his hand on Sam's arm. "I told you, Sam, you worry about that too much. I can take care of myself."

"I know. I just… I'm hoping you'll be around a while, too."

Danny smiled, and they shared a look that Tucker didn't even want to try and interpret. He turned to Valerie. "Maybe _now_ we should go someplace else. I liked it better when they were fighting."

"Oh, they're not so bad." She coughed and raised her voice. "Unlike some people, who feel the need to maul each other in the hallway _in front of my locker_." That was for the benefit of a beefy, letter-jacketed jock who was groping a cheerleader he had pressed up against Valerie's locker. She tried to elbow her way past them. "Ugh! Take it to a room, wouldja, Dale? Or at least somebody else's locker."

Dale came up for air long enough to give her a look of disdain over his shoulder. "What are you even doing with a locker in this hallway? You haven't been A-List since ninth grade."

His latest girlfriend—Ashley, Tucker saw when she came out from behind Dale—crossed her arms and flashed Valerie a smug grin. "What's the matter, Val? Losing out to the goth freak making you bitter?"

Tucker and Danny exchanged glances. This was _so_ not gonna end well.

Sam's jaw clenched. "No, Hannah, she just isn't—oh! I'm sorry! You're_ Ashley_!" She put her hand in front of her mouth in mock embarrassment. "My bad. It's just that I _assumed_ you were Hannah, since just the other day, Dale's tongue was shoved down _her_ throat in this very same hallway."

"Well, they broke up, and now he's with me!" No doubt Ashley had intended it to be decisive, but it came out somewhat petulant. When Dale didn't confirm it immediately, she elbowed him.

"Uh, that's right, baby. You know you're the only girl for me."

"Mm-hmm." Valerie arched her eye in a look of extreme skepticism.

Dale started looking like he wanted something to punch, so Danny grabbed Sam's arm. "Okay, time to go." He started dragging Sam backwards as Tucker did the same with Valerie.

"But that's _my_ locker!" Valerie protested.

"And it'll still be—_oof_!" Their flight ended abruptly when Danny and Tucker backed into matching walls of solid muscle and hands clamped down on their shoulders.

"Going somewhere, Fen-toenail?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Six**

**_Casper High School_  
_Amity Park_**

Danny and Tucker looked up to find two jocks even bigger than Dale towering over them. Tucker grimaced as large hands clamped down on his shoulders, and beside him, Danny groaned. "Apparently not, Dash."

Dash Baxter and his best friend, Kwan, were the most celebrated jocks of the junior class at Casper High. They were also the meanest. Or, rather, Dash was the meanest, and Kwan did whatever Dash said. Usually with a cheery smile.

"You're not bothering my buddy and his girlfriend here, are you?" Dash glared at Danny, who was his captive, while Kwan beamed down at Tucker as if they were old friends. His hands digging painfully into Tucker's shoulders belied the friendly expression, however.

To make matters worse, Dash and Kwan weren't the only ones who had gathered for the show. Paulina, the self-anointed Queen of Casper High, was standing behind him with Starr, her lady-in-waiting. Paulina affected a spoiled pout as she flipped her long, dark hair over her shoulder. "What are these losers doing in the popular kids' hallway?"

"We're just trying to get into my locker which, apparently, has become the Casper High make-out spot," Valerie said. "So leave Danny and Tucker alone."

A cruel smirk curled on Dash's lips. "Oh, I don't think so. I've been in the mood for a good nerd wailing, and it's been way too long since Fenton has had the honors. I—"

"_Of Mice and Men_! What is going on here, people?"

Tucker wasn't sure whether to be worried or relieved as Mr. Lancer, their bald, paunchy, book-titles-as-epithets-spewing assistant principal waded into the fray. Normally, he was the last person they wanted sorting out a dispute between the jocks and anyone else. A Casper High male cheerleader back in the day, Lancer was all about school spirit, and the football players and cheerleaders could do no wrong in his eyes.

That was before Antarctica, however. Lancer had been among the group who had learned Danny's secret, and things had improved for them somewhat since then. He was still as tough as ever, always on them to improve their grades, but he'd stopped assuming that any trouble they were involved in was automatically their fault.

Dash, in typical boot-licking mode, was the first to respond. "Not a thing, Mr. Lancer."

"Then why are you all standing around in the hallways? Don't you have class?"

"We were just on our way." Dash cocked his head, and the jocks and cheerleaders disbursed. Ashley, now with something to prove, draped herself on Dale, cooing in his ear as they went.

"I love you, honey."

"I love you too, baby."

Sam made retching noises as Lancer turned to them. "And you four? I don't see anything… urgent requiring your attention in this hallway." That was Lancer-speak for _there aren't any ghosts here_. "Shouldn't you be getting to class?"

Valerie growled in frustration. "I need to get into my locker!"

"Fine. You have thirty seconds, then I want you all headed towards your next class." With a self-satisfied nod at a disciplinary job well done, Lancer walked away, and Valerie finally was able to open her locker.

"Val, what are you doing?" Starr was still there, leaning her shoulder against the locker beside Valerie's. Tucker stifled a groan—Starr rarely had anything nice to say about any of them.

Sam grimaced, looking even more annoyed than Tucker felt. "Uh, Paulina went that way, Starr."

Starr ignored her and continued talking to Valerie as if the rest of them didn't exist. "I'm doing my best to get you back in with everyone, but how am I supposed to do that if you keep hanging out with the geeks and freaks?"

Tucker sighed. "We can hear you, you know."

Valerie pulled the book she needed out of her locker and put it in her backpack. "Listen, Starr. You're, like, the only person who didn't completely dump me when my dad lost all his money, and I really appreciate that. But these are my friends. You can either deal with it, or not."

Starr shook her head. "I don't get it, Val. Now that you aren't dating that loser anymore—"

"Lo_sers_," Tucker corrected. "Why is it that no one ever remembers that Valerie almost dated me before she almost dated Danny? And you and I went out, too, Starr. But does anybody ever remember this stuff? No."

But no one was listening to him. Valerie slammed her locker shut and looked at Starr. "If you still wanna be my friend, fine. But you don't get to tell me who my other friends are. You don't hear me baggin' on the losers you hang with, do you?"

Starr gaped at her. "I don't hang with losers! I'm on the _A-List_!"

"And the difference is?"

Tucker, Danny, and Sam exchanged impressed looks as Starr turned a deep shade of red. "Fine. It's your social life's funeral." She stalked off, and the three of them exploded with laughter as Valerie calmly turned away from Starr.

"That was awesome, Valerie!" Sam clapped a hand down on Val's shoulder.

Valerie, however, didn't look so pleased. "They used to be my friends, you know."

"They're lousy friends," Danny said. "They don't deserve you."

She smiled at him. "Thanks. But why do you let Dash and his gang push you around like that? You could take all of 'em with one blast from your little finger."

"Yeah… I tried the whole payback thing. Didn't work out so well."

She regarded him a moment, then shrugged. "Okay." She made a face and wiped a finger down her locker. "But you wouldn't happen to have a ghost power that could blast the make-out sweat off my locker, would you?"

"Ugh." Sam wrinkled her nose in revulsion. "No kidding. Was that not the most disgusting display ever? A prime example of everything that's wrong with high school relationships."

Tucker raised his eyebrows at her. "You're _in_ a high school relationship."

"Please. We don't_ grope_ each other in the hallways."

"But Sam, they're_ totally_ in loooooooove." Valerie folded her hands at her cheek and batted her eyelashes.

"Oh, don't even get me started on that. Last week, Dale was 'totally in love' with Hannah, and Ashley was 'totally in love' with Kwan. They throw that word around so much, it doesn't even mean anything anymore."

Tucker snorted. "Oh, I see. But I suppose when _you_—"

Behind the girls, Danny started waving his hands in a frantic motion, his eyes wide with panic.

"What? I'm just sayin'—GAH!" He was cut off when Danny lunged between Sam and Val and yanked him by the arm hard enough to almost pull him off his feet.

"Hey Tuck, I just remembered I need a couple of answers for today's math homework. Let's go by your locker. We'll see you girls in English, 'kay? Bye!" And with another tug on Tucker's arm, Danny was dragging him down the hall in the direction of Tucker's locker.

When they rounded a corner, Tucker jerked his arm free. "What the hell was that all about? You practically dislocated my shoulder!"

"We're _so_ not gonna go where that conversation was headed."

"What? I was just giving her a hard time about you guys." Tucker grinned, then started chanting. "Danny and Sam, sittin' in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes little ghost-lets in the baby carriage—"

"You know, if Sam hears you singing that, you'll be the one sucking your thumb and wetting your pants."

"But the mocking is my right—nay, my sacred duty—as the Third Wheel. I mean, what's the fun of having my two best friends in love with each other if I can't—_what_?"

Danny cringed as if Tucker had said something unspeakable. "Would you stop saying that?"

"Oh, give me a break. I don't mind being the third wheel. Especially not with Valerie making it a nice, even, and very pleasant four."

"I'm not talking about the third wheel thing. I mean me and Sam. We're not exactly… well, I wouldn't use those words… exactly…"

"What? You guys _are_ a couple."

"Well, yeah, but…"

"Dude, you're not making any sense." And then it hit him. "Hold up. Are you saying you two have been together all these months and you've never said you love her?"

Danny looked at the floor. "Not, you know, in _that _way."

"And she hasn't…?"

He looked back up. "You heard her just now. Do you think this is the first time I've heard this rant? It makes her nuts the way that word gets tossed around. If I said it, she'd think I was just saying it to say it, instead of really meaning it."

"Well, do you?"

"Do I…?"

"Mean it?"

He looked down at the floor again. "I don't know. I… I mean, she's really important to me… and I…"

Tucker rolled his eyes. "You two belong together. You're both totally nuts."

Danny blew out a huff of air. "Tucker, this is _Sam_. Do you even get how big a deal this is?"

"Not really, no."

"She is, like, the single most important person in my life besides my family and you. I honestly cannot imagine my life without her. But we're _sixteen_. Sixteen-year-olds have relationships like Dale and Ashley, or Dale and Hannah, or Dale and insert-name-here. They're hot and fast, and then they crash and burn, and I… I can't afford to do that, not with Sam. She's not just my girlfriend, she's my _best_ friend, and so everything just feels like a bigger deal with her. I don't want it to burn out after a few months because we rushed into… anything."

"Rushed? Are you kidding me with this?" It wasn't exactly the word Tucker would use to describe the glacial pace at which Danny and Sam's friendship had become a relationship and, although Danny tended to be pretty sparing with the details, Tucker was pretty sure the "anything" they weren't rushing into referred to more than just which words they had or hadn't said. Then again, it shouldn't be surprising, considering this was the same guy who'd asked Sam to be his girlfriend by way of his dad's old class ring. "Man, I don't know how someone who's had his DNA rearranged by a burst of ecto energy from a Ghost Portal that his parents invented can be so old school."

"I'm not old school."

"You gave her your dad's class ring. That's, like, _ancient_ school."

"Would you stop giving me grief about the ring?" Danny folded his arms. "This isn't about being old-fashioned. It's about not screwing up something really, really important."

Tucker thought about how hesitant Sam had always been about telling Danny how she really felt about him, despite being bold and outspoken in every other aspect of her life, and it made a sort of sense. "I get it now. She's scared of the same thing, so she's been warning you off. Making sure you don't say something you aren't one hundred percent positive you mean."

"I don't know. Maybe."

"And you're really not sure?"

"I… well… she's… and I… I haven't really…"

"Dude. You just said you can't imagine your life without her. How do you see that working out? As just friends?"

"No. Not if I can help it."

"So you wanna be more than friends for the rest of your life? I gotta tell you, that sounds like love to me."

Danny closed his eyes and leaned back against a locker. "Oh _man_."

Tucker scoffed. "You suck, you know that? I can't even get a date, and you're acting like being in love—with someone who is totally in love with you, too, just in case you missed it—is a bad thing."

"It's not, it's just—" Danny opened his eyes. "Wait. You think she's…?"

Tucker resisted the urge to shake him. "DUH!"

Danny let out an uneven breath, his face a mixture of elation and terror. "This whole thing is huge, that's all. I don't know if I'm ready. Or if she is."

"C'mon, dude. She's liked you a really long time."

"Yeah, but like is…_like_. It's not necessarily—" The warning bell rang and Danny jumped, pushing himself up off the locker. "Crud. Lancer's gonna give us both detention if we're late to class. See you in seventh period?"

"I'll be there."

"And Tuck. Don't say anything to her, or give her a hard time about this, okay?"

"Who, me?" Tucker's eyes were wide and innocent. "You know me better than that."

"Yeah, I know you. Why do you think I'm asking?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Seven**

**_Clockwork's Tower_****  
_The Ghost Zone_**

It somehow seemed worse than it had the night before. With the fires out and everything looking cold and, well, _dead_, Clockwork's absence seemed somehow more real and ominous to Danny. He looked at Sam. "Let's not hang around long. I just wanna get what we came for, and we can be on our way."

She gave him a sort of searching look, but just nodded. "I hate to say this, but you're gonna have to touch stuff to see if whatever was shocking you has worn off or not."

"Yeah." Danny made a face, but reached out to touch the nearest rock. Nothing happened. "Hm. Let me try something else." He saw the cog piece Tucker had thrown at him when they were here before and bent down to brush his fingers against it. Again, nothing. "Well, I guess it has worn off. Darn it." He looked at the tips of his white gloves, which were covered in black soot. "But there is a lot of soot covering everything. Maybe if we scoop up enough of it, she can still figure out what it is."

"I'll fill up a Fenton Thermos with the stuff. Maybe the containment cell will keep it from breaking down any further."

Danny nodded. "Good plan. Now we just need to find a bigger chunk of that other Fenton Thermos."

"Tucker and I kinda picked our way through stuff down here and didn't see anything. Do you think there might be some pieces up in the tower? If Clockwork was using it to defend himself, he probably would've been up there."

Danny looked up, feeling nervous. Normally, he didn't mind heights, but here in the Ghost Zone, he was much more vulnerable, and that tower didn't look all that stable. "I'm afraid of bringing the whole thing down on both of us if I touch the wrong thing up there."

"If it does, it'll phase right through me."

"Thank you for your concern."

"Look on the bright side. At least you _can_ touch stuff now."

"Great." Taking a deep breath, Danny flew off to the upper tower. When the floor didn't give way beneath him as he landed, he let out his breath in a sigh of relief. Still, it did seem precarious, even more so than yesterday, and he picked his way across the floor cautiously, looking for the familiar white and green that would indicate he'd found another chunk of Fenton Thermos. After several minutes of searching, he thought he saw something white behind a chunk of twisted metal that looked like it had once been part of the clock's hands.

"Hey, I think I might have found something," he called down to Sam. Bending down, he put his hand out to move the metal aside, breathing a sigh of relief when it didn't zap him. Pushing it aside, he picked up the piece.

"Is it a piece of the Thermos?" Sam shouted back up at him.

"Yeah, this definitely looks like it's part of a Thermos." Clutching the shard of white and green metal in his hand, he stood up straight, then flew out of the tower and back down to the ground, landing beside Sam. "Here's what I found." She looked at it, nodding, but seemed a little lost in thought. He frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking about how yesterday everything shocked you and now it's worn off. Doesn't that sound like some sort of weapon? Or maybe a defense? Do you think Clockwork was using some sort of Ghost Shield or Specter Deflector to defend himself?"

"He's a ghost. It would shock him, too."

"That's what I was thinking, too. So more likely it was part of whatever weapon was used against the tower."

Danny chewed on the inside of his lip, thinking. "I've never seen a weapon that leaves anti-ghost properties behind. And what ghost would want to use a weapon like that? If whoever did this was after Clockwork's time devices, coating the place in whatever this stuff is would make it kinda hard for them to come and get the devices."

"Well, it does wear off."

"But everything was already gone when we were here yesterday, before the shock effect had worn off."

"I know." She looked uneasy. "Which makes me wonder… what if the attacker wasn't a ghost?"

Danny's eyes widened. "Not a ghost? You think a _human_ did this?"

"I don't know what to think. I'm just brainstorming."

Danny looked around him. "I can't imagine a human coming in here and doing this. The Fenton Portal is the only permanent way in from our world, now that Vlad's portal has been deactivated and taken apart."

"True. But there are other ways into the Ghost Zone." She ticked a few off on her fingers. "The natural portals that open and close randomly. Wulf can claw open portals. The Fenton Bazookas have a portal setting. And didn't your dad invent something that can open up portals wherever you want?"

"Yeah, but just a prototype, which Johnny 13 stole, and then I destroyed. And I guess it was pretty glitchy anyway—Johnny was lucky the thing didn't close on him while he was halfway through, or he'd have been stuck halfway between the Ghost Zone and the Human World forever. My dad was never able to make a stable one. Not yet, anyway."

"That doesn't mean someone else couldn't have."

"I kinda doubt it. You know how the ghosts are about humans going into the Ghost Zone. If a human had something like that and was using it, one of the ghosts would've come griping to me about it. You may have noticed they like to blame me for anything humans do that they don't like."

She rolled her eyes. "Just like certain humans blame you for things ghosts do that they don't like."

"The joys of being a halfa."

"So I guess you'd also have heard about it if someone were using the Fenton Bazooka, or had nabbed Wulf, or was using the natural portals or something."

"That, and the Fenton Bazooka doesn't actually _open_ a portal. It just kind of sucks whoever it hits to some random point in the Ghost Zone, and it only works on ghosts. And we definitely would've heard from Walker if someone who wasn't him had gotten a hold of Wulf, especially if they were using him to get into the Ghost Zone." He lowered his voice in imitation of the Ghost Zone's self-appointed jail warden. "That would be against the rules."

"And without the Infi-Map, there's no way to know where or when a natural portal will open up."

Danny frowned as a nasty thought occurred to him. "You know, maybe we should stop by the Far Frozen before we leave the Ghost Zone and make sure everything's okay there, and that Frostbite still has the Infi-Map. We can ask if they've heard about any new kinds of weapons being used in the Ghost Zone—by ghosts _or_ humans."

She nodded. "Yeah, that might be smart."

"Okay, then. If you got samples of the soot, then we should be done here."

"Right here." She held up a Thermos.

"Good. Then let's go visit Frostbite." _And hope everything's okay there._

* * *

_**Realm of the Far Frozen  
The Ghost Zone **_

"Great One and Companion of the Great One. It is my pleasure to welcome you once more to the Realm of the Far Frozen."

Sam grimaced, inclining her head toward Danny. "Hey, Great One. Think you can get him to call me by my name?" Although the first time they'd met, he'd called her and Tucker Danny's servants, so at least "companion" was a step up.

Danny ignored her, smiling up at the mammoth, Yeti-like creature. "It's good to see you, too, Frostbite. Really good, in fact. I was worried that something might have happened to you."

Frostbite frowned, crossing his arms in front of him. It was hard not to stare at his left arm, which was made out of ice and showed his bones beneath. The horns on his head were made of ice as well, but Sam suspected the arm must be some sort of prosthetic. While all the snow creatures in Frostbite's village had horns like his, he alone had an ice arm, and she couldn't help but be curious about how he'd lost the original. Had it been his right arm instead, she might not have been able to stop herself from making an inappropriate comment about lightsabers and wampas.

"Worried? Why?" Frostbite's voice was deep and incongruously cultured, coming from such a fierce-looking beast.

"It's kind of a long story. You do still have the Infi-Map, right? It hasn't been stolen?"

"Yes. It is quite safe in its chest. But I am being a poor host." He clapped his huge hands—paws?—together. "Bring a coat for the Great One's companion, and bring refreshments to the Great Hall."

"That isn't really necessary—"

Sam elbowed him. "The coat would be nice. Those of us who don't have fur and/or ice powers get a little cold when it's below zero." She rubbed her bare arms to emphasize the point. To Frostbite, she said, "And please, call me Sam."

"Ah yes, of course. Sam of the Very Vegan."

Sam rolled her eyes at the "title" Danny had somewhat arbitrarily bestowed upon her on their first trip here, but it was better than being the "Great One's companion," and way better than being his servant, so she decided not to press the matter. In moments, two snow creatures appeared with a thick hooded pullover woven out of white fur. She tugged it on over her head, grateful for its warmth, as Frostbite guided them to a cave where there was a long table with high-backed chairs around it, like a banquet table or an office boardroom. Once seated, Danny began explaining what had happened, beginning with the cloaked ghost who had appeared at City Hall, and ending with their last trip to the ruins of Clockwork's Tower.

Frostbite stroked his mammoth, furry chin with his right paw. "This is disturbing news, indeed. Clockwork is a most powerful ghost, and a guardian of both your world and mine. It should have been impossible to take him by surprise. And the threat must have been great for him to have summoned the Ancient Ones to defend the tower and to warn you."

"Then I was right?" Sam asked. "That ghost was one of the ancient ghosts who put away the Ghost King the first time?"

"From your description, that is most likely who she was. But Clockwork does not involve himself in temporal affairs lightly. Ostensibly, he is an agent of the Observants, whose High Council is responsible for trying and sentencing ghosts who have committed the most extreme offenses in the Human World. But the Observants have taken an oath to observe and not act in the Human World."

Sam arched her eyebrow at Frostbite. "I don't think Clockwork got the memo. He's kind of a meddler."

Frostbite bellowed out a deep, throaty laugh. "Yes, indeed, Compan— I mean, Sam of the Very Vegan. That is why I said he is _ostensibly_ an agent of the Observants. Clockwork keeps his own council on when he should…_meddle_, as you say, and when he should refrain, but as I said, he does not involve himself lightly. He only pulls creatures from the time stream on rare occasions. It is very risky business, interfering with the time stream."

Danny made a sound at the back of his throat. "Tell me about it."

"And yet, he chose to send an Ancient One to you. He must have had a reason to seek you out specifically. Something beyond calling for you to come to his aid, as it was clearly too late for that."

"She was really weak when she arrived. All she could say was, 'He didn't see it coming,' and then she pulled off her medallion and returned to her own time. So the question is, what could possibly keep Clockwork from seeing it coming?"

"I do not know. I have heard of neither human nor ghost whom Clockwork could not see."

"What about the way the ruins of the tower were acting like some sort of Specter Deflector? Ever hear of anything that could do that, or of any ghost or human who had such a weapon?"

"I have not, although this could be the answer to the first question. It is conceivable that a weapon that repels ghosts could also be used to block ecto-based powers, such as Clockwork's ability to see through the time stream."

Danny frowned. "But ghost shields don't have that effect."

"This, however, does not seem to have the same properties as your 'ghost shield.' Did you not compare it to your 'Specter Deflector'?"

"Yeah, but I don't really know how any of that stuff works. My parents are the scientists."

"Then you were right to take a sample for them to analyze."

"But whatever it was that was causing that effect has already broken down. There's nothing left but dust to examine, and my mom couldn't tell what it was."

"Still, it is good you are bringing more back for her to run further tests. I would like to analyze the ruins myself in our facilities here."

Danny looked relieved. "I think that's a good idea. You guys know the Ghost Zone a lot better than I do."

"Yes, Danny Phantom. Your primary responsibility is to the Human World. But understand that the people of the Far Frozen are guardians of the Infi-Map, not of the entire Ghost Zone. Our influence and abilities are limited. However, we are skilled warriors, ready at a moment's notice, and are always at your service whenever you are in the Ghost Zone. You only need call for us, and we will assist you in any way we can."

Danny raised his eyebrows. "Call for you? How do I do that? I'm guessing you don't have a cell phone."

Frostbite laughed again. "No, Great One. We have no need for such human-made devices. You are connected to our people by the abilities that we share. Trust in it. Let it be a part of everything you do, every power you have, and you will never be alone. But I see our refreshments have arrived," he said as two snow creatures bearing trays full of steaming mugs entered the cave. Sam winced, hoping it wasn't something with milk in it, as she didn't want to be rude and refuse, but she caught the scent of cinnamon and cloves and guessed it must be some sort of mulled cider. Frostbite waved his ice-hand at the steaming beverages. "Drink, my friends, and warm yourselves before your journey back to your own world."


	8. Chapter 8

**Eight**

**_Amity Park_**

Although visiting Frostbite always tended to have a soothing effect on Danny, as soon as they left the Far Frozen, his thoughts returned to the images of the destroyed clock tower. He figured a little patrolling with Sam might clear his head, and the Box Ghost was kind enough to oblige by causing some minor mischief in the warehouse district. After a few misfires with a crate full of makeup from one of those girly, preteen mall stores and a brief tussle with a roll of bubble wrap, they finally trapped him with a Fenton Thermos.

"Some 'Great One' you are," Sam said as she slipped the Thermos into her backpack for them to empty into the Ghost Zone later. "Not counting the thing with Pandora's Box, you haven't taken this long to get the Box Ghost into a Fenton Thermos since freshman year." She reached over and brushed some glitter powder off his shoulder. "And pink is so not your color."

He grunted, irritable, and went intangible long enough for the glitter to fall to the floor. "Then next time, you can chase him through three warehouses and five hundred crates of Sayonara Pussycat Lip Gloss."

"Geez. And here I thought I was supposed to be the gloomy one. I would've thought all that genuflecting from your favorite snow beast would've put you in a good mood."

He bit back a peevish reply, instead looking to the floor. "I just can't wrap my mind around Clockwork's Tower _gone_. And _Clockwork_ gone."

"We'll find him."

He looked up at her. "You are the most optimistic goth ever."

"No, I just have to make sure _you're_ hopeful. You're gonna ruin my reputation if your outlook is blacker than mine."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that."

She reached over and put her hand on his arm. "Take me for a ride. We can find someplace quiet and talk about it."

He wasn't really sure he wanted to talk about it but, if nothing else, flying with her was something he always enjoyed, so he took her hand and turned them both intangible before soaring up through the ceiling of the warehouse and into the evening sky.

They ended up under a tree on a quiet hill overlooking City Hall—the same hill where he'd first given her his dad's class ring to officially begin their dating relationship. It was an unusually warm night for so early in spring, and Sam was only wearing a black hoodie over her tank top and skirt, but it was just cool enough that she sat huddled against him for warmth as they looked out at City Hall and the huge statue of Danny Phantom standing in front of it, illuminated by spotlights.

After a while, Sam broke the silence. "We will find him, you know. I don't care how powerful whoever did this thinks they are. They won't beat you."

He gave her half a smile. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, but that's not why this is bugging me so much. I… I guess I never realized until now how much I really rely on knowing Clockwork is watching out for my future."

Her brow furrowed. "Clockwork doesn't control your future, Danny. You do."

"I know. But he knows how to nudge me in the right direction. Even if he's a real pain in the ass about it."

She took a moment before responding. "You aren't going to become that… _monster_ we fought in the future. You've already made the choice not to become that, and he won't ever exist."

"Yeah. But just knowing the potential is there…"

"No. That's not you, Danny. It never was. Didn't you say that he was created by separating your ghost half from your human half, and then joining your ghost half with Vlad's ghost half? How is that _you_, then? It's really more Vlad than you."

Danny clenched his fists in his lap. She'd meant that to be a comfort, but it actually made him feel worse. "You wanna know the truth? It's not that dark future me I'm afraid of becoming. Because you're right, that was just… _ew_. I think it's safe to say I'm not gonna go looking to rip out my humanity any time soon, even if…" He trailed off, not wanting to finish that thought out loud. In that alternate timeline, the thing that had precipitated him going to the extreme of expunging his own humanity was the death of his parents, Jazz, Tucker, and Sam. The five people he loved most in the world, gone in a single instant. To even contemplate that kind of loss was too much to bear. But no matter what might happen in this future, he would never surrender his humanity. No grief could be worse than turning into _that_.

"So what are you afraid of?"

He gave her a fleeting look before averting his gaze to City Hall below. "I'm afraid of becoming Vlad."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her eyes widen in surprise. "What?"

He sighed, trying to put words around this fear that had always lurked in the depths of his heart from the first time he'd met his parents' old college friend. "Vlad and I are a lot alike, Sam. More than I'd like to admit."

"Danny, aside from you both getting ghost powers from freak accidents with your parents' Ghost Portal, you are absolutely nothing like Vlad."

"I don't know, Sam. We have a lot more in common than that. Look at our friendships. There was a time when he was just as tight with my mom and dad as I am with you and Tucker. And look how that ended."

"You do realize that if you're Vlad in this scenario, then I'm married to Tucker." She shuddered dramatically.

"I'm serious, Sam."

"So am I. The only thing we have in common with your parents and Vlad is that there are three of us, and one of us is a girl. The whole love triangle thing they had going, and Vlad's really creepy obsession with your mom isn't anything like you, me, and Tuck. And even putting all that aside, Vlad was never their friend."

"You can't say that. Just because he turned out to not be a real friend in the end, doesn't mean they never were."

"I _can_ say that, because I know your folks. Your house is like home, you know that? Not just to your family, but to everyone. It's the way your parents are. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is family." A sort of nostalgic smile softened her features. "I remember when they first met me. They did the whole double-take thing when they saw me and everything…"

Danny couldn't help but chuckle. "You were pretty extreme in middle school."

"Yeah, well, being extreme acts as a good filter. It's easy to tell who judges everything on the surface, and who looks beneath. And your parents did the double-take thing, but they welcomed me anyway. And not just in that fake 'he's just being rebellious, so if we don't say anything, she'll go away' kind of way. They always made me feel welcome, just as I am. With my parents, you have to be what _they_ want you to be."

He glanced at her again. "I think maybe your issue with your parents kind of colors how you view everyone else's parents. Do you think I don't ever feel like they want me to be something I'm not? What teenager doesn't feel like that? And half the time, they're so obsessed with ghosts and whatever latest invention they've come up with, they hardly even notice me and Jazz. At least not until they found out I am a ghost."

"Exactly my point. They found out you're a half-ghost, and they've been nothing but loving and supportive."

"Well, yeah. Ghosts are their _thing_, Sam. Like dinner at the country club and floral prints are your parents' thing."

"No, _hunting_ ghosts is your parents' thing. They never tried to really _understand_ ghosts until they found out you were one."

"Still, do you know how long my parents have been pushing the ghost thing on me and Jazz, even though we didn't want any part of it? All parents want their kids to be like them. You just like my parents better than yours because they're weird, and you love weird."

She sighed. "We're getting way off on a tangent here. Your parents have always made sure you knew they loved you no matter what, and they've always made people like me and Tucker feel the same way, like we're family. Vlad could have had that, too. But all he ever cared about was himself. Even his obsession with your mom was about _him_, not her. He didn't actually love her; he wanted to _own_ her. And since you're her son and a half-ghost, he wanted to own you, too."

Danny clenched his fists once more. She was more right about that than she even knew. He'd still never told her or Tucker or anyone else about Vlad's attempt to clone him, or who the half-ghost girl they thought was his cousin really was.

She continued on, unaware of the chord she'd struck. "Moving to Amity Park and cheating his way into getting elected mayor was just another way for him to think he could own you, and your mom, and everyone else in town. Vlad Masters created Vlad Plasmius out of the choices he made, just like you created Danny Phantom out of the choices you've made, and they're about as far apart as you can get."

"That's just it, though. I don't always make the right choices, do I? You know that better than anyone, since you're the first person to get on my case when I screw up."

"So you're not perfect. Not exactly a newsflash, Danny. None of us are."

"But I _need_ to be. Not _perfect_, but… because of who I am and what I can do, my screw-ups are proportionally bigger. Clockwork proved that."

"And we already decided that you weren't going to become that guy, right?"

"But what about the stuff like using my powers to get back at people who've hurt me? That's classic Vlad, and every time I do it, I tell myself it's stupid and wrong and I'll never do it again, but then I get so tired and angry of the _crap_, and the temptation is just too much."

"This isn't _Star Wars_, where once you start down the path to the dark side, forever will it dominate your destiny. Not every choice you make is as irrevocable as ripping out your own humanity. You can always turn around. Sure, sometimes you do things that make me wanna smack you, but then you turn things around. And that's the real difference between you and Vlad. You are always willing to take that hard look at yourself, and when you've gone the wrong direction, you _turn around_. Vlad never did. He just plowed ahead, sure that whatever direction he was going was the right one just because it's the direction he felt like going."

Danny shook his head. "But some decisions _are_ irrevocable. Like giving up my powers. It was only dumb luck that I got them back instead of getting myself killed. It wasn't because of any choice I made."

She looked at him a moment. "You're wrong. You did make a choice, and it wasn't even about getting your powers back. You made the choice to try to stop the asteroid even without them. That was your U-turn, Danny. And for every bad choice you've made, I can point to the place where you turned around and made the right one. Vlad never did that. Ever. And he certainly had enough opportunities, right up until the very end. He chose to use his idea on how to stop the asteroid to blackmail the entire planet, and he chose to shove your dad's friendship back in his face. So he ended up exiled in space instead. All his own doing, and all because he never once thought that maybe he should just _turn around_.

"But that's not who you are, and it's not who you will ever be. Vlad and that evil, alternate-future you are just… they're ghosts, Danny. And I don't mean ecto-beings. I mean they're… insubstantial. Echoes of what might have been if you'd have been less than you are. But you're better than that, and you can't ever become what they are because they're nothing, while you…" She nodded into the distance towards the statue in front of City Hall. "You're a hero."

He met her eyes, this time without looking away. "I wouldn't be without you, though. You're always the one who pushes me in the right direction."

"I can only tell you what I think. I can't take the steps for you."

"Still. I worry about what I'd be if I didn't have you."

"But you do have me, so there's nothing to worry about." She gave him an impish grin, and his stomach rolled in a not-unpleasant way. He leaned forward to kiss her, but to his surprise, she put her hand to his chest, stopping him. "Whoa there. You do realize I'm seeing someone else, right? Maybe you know him? Black hair, blue eyes, kinda cute… in a dorky sort of way."

He blinked, confused, until he saw the glint in her eye and remembered that he was still in ghost form. Smirking, he leaned toward her again. "Yeah, well you know what they say. If you can't be with the one you… like as more than a friend…" He felt warmth creep into his cheeks as he realized what he'd almost said.

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Niiiiice. And not very poetic."

"I'm not much of a poet." While leaning his weight on his right hand, he reached over with his left and brushed her sleek, black hair from her face with the back of his fingers. Like the first time they'd kissed, it occurred to him that the gloves he wore when in ghost form were cumbersome, keeping him from feeling the texture of her skin or the softness of her hair under his fingers. But the way she was flirting with him, as if his ghost half were an entirely different person, was really appealing, and he didn't want to revert to human form and break the spell. He let his hand go intangible, just enough to create that odd, tingling sensation where it came into contact with her. She closed her eyes, her breath catching a little, and his mouth went dry. He leaned in further, this time to whisper in her ear. "Bet your boyfriend can't do that."

"I… mmmm… what was the question?" She didn't open her eyes, and her voice had a slightly tremulous quality to it that made his stomach do another delicious tumble.

Keeping the hand partially intangible, he traced a line from her cheek, down her neck, and over her shoulder. She shivered, leaning into the places where he was not quite touching her. He let ethereal fingers brush across her collarbone, then slowly travel lower, unzipping her jacket slightly. She moaned, and the sound sent a current over him that was much more intense than the slight tingle he got from going intangible. Unable to hold back any longer, he captured her lips with his own in a long, slow kiss, while his hand continued its exploration. His heart was pounding as he wondered just how far he could take this. His answer came not long after when she grabbed onto his arm above his wrist, where it was still solid.

"Nice try, Ghost Boy."

He kept kissing her. "It was worth a shot." He let his hand become fully solid again and moved it to her shoulder so he could pull her closer to him. She pressed against him, her arm snaking around his neck, and Clockwork and his worries about what he might become all melted away until there was nothing left but her.

* * *

_**The Ghost Zone**_

He watched the viewscreen, his lip curling in disgust as the two teenagers kissed. It was nauseating, really, that the boy would again and again choose the common and pedestrian when he could have the extraordinary instead. _You could be what I am… and _this_ is what you choose?_ He should turn away—this kind of voyeurism was beneath him, after all—but why bother? He was… what had she called him again? _Insubstantial. Nothing._

His eyes narrowed further into angry slits as he froze the image. Insubstantial, perhaps—enough to escape Clockwork's notice completely. But _nothing_? He was far from nothing; he was _everything_. He was the inevitable future toward which they were all hurtling, even if they were too stupid and blinded by their own preconceived notions of choice and destiny to see it. But they would see soon enough.

He frowned. Too soon, if he didn't find a way to distract them. Their return to the ruins of Clockwork's Tower worried him, and getting Frostbite involved could complicate matters as well, especially at such a crucial juncture, when everything was falling into place. Not only was his original plan to bring down the Observants ready to implement, he'd also uncovered the exact identity and nature of the mystery ghost who had interfered during his siege against Clockwork's Tower. That had been surprising, to say the least, but it made for an interesting project, and one that was sure to cause even more turmoil and anguish for the young Ghost Boy. But if he put the pieces together too soon—if they figured out what that Thermos had contained, or the source of the powers he'd used to bring down Clockwork, or anything that divulged his identity before he was ready to announce his return—everything he had planned could be ruined.

With a flick of his hand, the image began to rewind. He still couldn't control time itself with Clockwork's devices, but he had learned how to manipulate the viewscreen to watch and playback whatever he wished. He stopped at the end of the girl's sermon.

_But that's not who you are, and it's not who you will ever be. Vlad and that evil, alternate-future you are just… they're ghosts, Danny. And I don't mean ecto-beings. I mean they're… insubstantial. Echoes of what might have been if you'd have been less than you are, but you aren't, and you can't ever become what they are because they're nothing. And you… You're a hero._

He fought the urge to retch, instead snarling at the image of the child on the screen. "She's wrong about more than who I am. She's wrong about who _you_ are. You _will_ become me. I'll see to that."

Their sickeningly bittersweet tête-à-tête continued with the boy's ridiculous brooding. _Still. I worry about what I'd be if I didn't have you._

_But you do have me, so there's nothing to worry about. _

He scoffed at the screen. "We'll see about that, too."

Whoa there. You do realize I'm seeing someone else, right? Maybe you know him? Black hair, blue eyes, kinda cute… in a dorky sort of way.

"What's this?" He stopped and paused the image, rewinding it to watch again as the boy leaned in to kiss her, and she stopped him. _Whoa there. You do realize I'm seeing someone else, right? _

A smile curled slowly onto his lips. "I do believe I've found my distraction."


	9. Chapter 9

**Nine**

_**Casper High School**  
**Amity Park**_

Sam usually drove to school. It was her biggest concession to the consumer culture, and it gnawed at her conscience a little. She told herself it was because Danny and Tucker would never submit to riding the school bus or walking now that they were sixteen, and that carpooling in the limited-release prototype alternative-fuel car her parents had procured for her sixteenth birthday was a much greener option than the boys each driving themselves. But Tucker didn't have a car, and Danny wouldn't be caught dead driving his sister's old "Pepto-mobile" straight into the lion's den, so that really wasn't an issue. The truth was, she just really liked driving, and she had to admit her parents had really outdone themselves on this one—the sporty little black coupe was _really_ cool. If Valerie didn't live across the bridge in Elmerton, too far away to carpool with them, Sam would have offered to drive her as well.

Danny was always her first stop, and Sam was pleased to see he was in a very good mood as he climbed into the passenger seat. She smiled at him. "You look happy."

He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the side of her mouth. "I had an amazing time last night."

"What a coincidence. I had an amazing time last night, too."

Apparently, they weren't the only ones. Tucker came out of his house with a broad grin on his face. "S'up?" he asked as he slid into the back seat. He looked at Danny, and said in a sing-song voice, "Somebody had a good night last night."

Danny's cheeks colored slightly. "You could say that." He and Sam exchanged glances, and she could feel warmth creep into her own cheeks.

"I just did." Then Tucker looked back and forth between them and scowled. "Oh, man, _no_. I don't mean you guys. And I _really_ don't wanna know. I'm talking about me."

Danny twisted in his seat to look back at Tucker while Sam drove. "I thought you had mayor stuff to do. I never knew paperwork could be so exciting."

"No, not that. I stopped by Nasty Burger while Valerie was on her break, and we had such a good time talking, I went back after she got off work, and we hung out."

Sam raised her eyebrows and regarded Tucker in the rearview mirror. "Oh, really?"

"Really. I think I might even have her almost convinced to let me take a look at that suit and sled of hers."

Sam sighed. "You've got to be kidding me. This is just a techno-geek thing?"

"_Just_ a techno-geek thing? Have you seen that suit? It's, like, the_ ultimate_ techno-geek thing."

"And you wonder why you don't have a girlfriend."

"Come on, Tucker," Danny said. "You're starting to like her again, aren't you?"

"She talks to me and she's _fine_. What's not to like?"

Sam restrained the urge to reach behind her and slap him. "See, that's your problem, Tucker. You'll hit on anything in a skirt. And that includes the guy with the bagpipes at the Amity Park Highlands festival. Although, admittedly, he is pretty hot."

"First of all—_ew_. And second of all, I never hit on _you_."

She arched her eyebrow. "Yes you did. When I'd wished Danny and I had never met, and you didn't know who I was. And there was that one time you kissed me."

Danny almost choked. "He _what_?"

"I thought we agreed that never happened," Tucker growled through clenched teeth.

Sam snorted. "Oh, keep your shirt on, Danny. It was just an accident."

"How does someone _accidentally_ kiss someone?" He glared at Tucker.

"It was when we had to take care of the sack of flour together. He was all caught up in playing daddy, when he left me and little baby Lillith, he gave us both a kiss good-bye."

Danny was not mollified as he turned his back on Tucker and crossed his arms. "I am so never speaking to you again."

"And I'm never speaking to _you_ again," Tucker said to Sam.

"Then it's gonna be an awfully quiet ride." Sam glanced over at Danny and rolled her eyes. "Oh, grow up. It was nothing. I just mentioned it to make a point."

"That my girlfriend and my best friend have a past history they didn't bother telling me about?"

"Ugh. Don't be an idiot. Parenting a sack of flour together does not count as past history." She looked at Tucker in the rearview mirror again. "My point, Tucker, is that if you chase every girl, how is Valerie supposed to know you actually are interested in her in particular?"

"Who said I was interested in her in particular? Not that I'm speaking to you."

"Then why are you so happy about hanging out with her last night?"

"Give me a break. You don't care about me. You just want her to hook up with someone so you can stop worrying about her liking Danny again."

Danny looked over his shoulder. "But do you like her? Not that I'm speaking to you."

"Well, yeah. She's really cool."

"Then make sure she knows she isn't just one of the crowd." Sam pulled the car into the Casper High student parking lot just as a flash of red and black streaked by overhead.

Tucker looked up, a smile spreading on his face. "She is definitely not just one of the crowd."

"And she's more than just a high-tech battle suit," Sam warned. "She's a person."

"I know that! I did mention that we hung out last night, right? For a really long time."

Sam smiled as they climbed out of the car. "You might have said something like—"

"Yo, Manson! Way to trade up the food chain!"

Sam turned around to find one of the generic jocks who usually followed Dash around giving her a thumbs-up. She frowned.

Danny came around the car to join her. "What was that all about?"

"Beats me." She shrugged. "I've given up trying to puzzle out the mind of the letter jacket set. Jane Goodall had an easier time figuring out the chimps. At least they're actually intelligent creatures."

Danny took her hand, and they started towards the school. People stopped and stared as they walked by, and more than a few people snickered.

Tucker looked around, scratching his ear just under his glasses. "Is it just me, or is everyone staring at us?"

"It's not just you." Danny looked around as well. "For a minute, I thought maybe I'd lost my pants again."

Sam eyed him to make sure his clothing hadn't gone intangible like it used to do at odd moments when he'd first gotten his powers. "Nope. But I haven't had this many people stare at me since I stopped shaving my head. What is with everyone?"

"Hey, guys!" Valerie joined them as they made their way up the school steps.

"Hey, Val." Tucker beamed at her. "You look like you're in a good mood. Looking forward to after school?"

"Oh, my gosh, yes! I can't wait!"

Sam elbowed Danny, smiling, before asking Valerie, "What's after school?"

"Now that it's been two years since my dad's bankruptcy, he qualifies for a home loan again." She was practically bouncing up and down. "He's been saving like crazy ever since he went back to work with Axion, so he thinks we can afford to buy a small house on _this_ side of the river. We're going house hunting with a realtor after school today! Daddy surprised me with the news yesterday just before I went to work. Can you believe it? We might finally be moving out of that dump!"

"That's awesome, Val," Danny said. "Where are you gonna look?"

"Well, we can't afford anything like what we used to have, but there are some really cute three-bedroom places in Haddonfield Village that the realtor's gonna show us."

"That's a nice area," Sam said.

"It's no Eidolon Hill or anything, but it sure beats the hell out of Elmerton." Eidolon Hill was Sam's neighborhood.

"Haddonfield Village isn't far from my house." Tucker looked pleased, and Sam couldn't help but smile and nudge Danny again.

Once inside the school, however, her smile faded as they continued to get weird looks from their classmates. Heads swung their way as they walked down the hall, and people giggled or clucked their tongues or, oddly, gave Sam approving looks. She had to grab Danny's arm to keep him from using his ghost powers on two different guys who tried to get her phone number.

Valerie's eyes were wide with confusion. "Did we just land in an episode of The Twilight Zone? What the hell has gotten into everybody?"

"Maybe ghosts are overshadowing the entire student body of Casper High?" Sam suggested.

Danny growled. "Overshadowed or not, if one more guy leers at you, I'm gonna—"

"Act like a grownup and ignore it," Sam finished, giving him a look of warning.

"You become a player when we weren't looking, Sam?" Tucker asked.

She turned back to Danny. "Him, on the other hand?" She jerked her thumb at Tucker. "Feel free to start wailing."

They separated at the foot of the main staircase, Danny and Valerie headed upstairs for his Spanish class and her math class, while Sam and Tucker stayed downstairs for chemistry. As they approached the chem lab, they saw Dash Baxter leaning against the doorjamb.

"Okay, Manson, let me make this quick. You're a freak, but you obviously know how to travel in the right circles. There's a party at my place Saturday night. You're invited if you bring your boyfriend. _Not_ Fen-tard. The other one. And not him." He indicated Tucker with a jerk of his head. "This is a strict no-losers affair."

Sam stared up at him. "Dash, there are so many things wrong with those last few sentences, I don't even know where to begin."

"Just be there. With your BF, or don't bother coming." Dash swept off with the air of royalty who had just bestowed a great favor on one of the peasants.

Tucker raised his eyebrows. "You sure you're not seeing some popular guy behind Danny's back?"

"Yes, Tucker, you got me. I'm seeing some popular guy behind Danny's back, because not only am I all about popularity—to the point where I would totally betray the guy I've had a crush on since the ninth grade—I also happen to have all the jocks just lined up to go out with me."

"Well, you kinda do now, in case you haven't noticed. You really have become a player."

Sam threw up her hands. "This is insane! Everyone has gone completely insane!"

The bell rang and Tucker pulled her inside the chem lab. "Let's just get to class. I'm sure it'll all blow over by lunch.

* * *

Tucker was wrong. All morning, Sam kept getting more weird looks, snide comments, and a few pats on the back for "trading up." In the computer lab during her study hall period just before lunch, Ashley and Starr sat huddled together, staring at Sam and talking in loud whispers. She tried to ignore it, but when the bell rang, she was finishing looking up the Cold War for her American History research paper, and by the time she'd gathered up her books and shoved them into her backpack, the only other people left in the room were Ashley and Starr, and they cornered her at her computer as she was standing to leave.

"Well, if it isn't Miss Self-Righteous herself." Ashley crossed her arms, a smug grin on her face. "Whose tongue has been shoved down _your_ throat lately?"

Sam gaped at her. "_Excuse_ me?"

"Oh, come on, Manson. At least I broke up with Kwan before I started seeing Dale. I didn't walk around school holding his hand when it was over."

"You wanna try putting words together that actually make sense, Ashley?"

Starr snorted. "Oh, come off your high horse. Everybody knows you've just been using Fenton to trade up. Not that I blame you. But still."

"'Trade up?' Unlike some people, I don't think of boys as used cars or real estate."

Before Starr could answer, Paulina appeared in the doorway. She stopped short as she caught sight of Sam, her eyes narrowing to cold slits. "_You_. You little _witch_. What did you do to him?"

Sam clenched her fists at her side. "Would somebody please tell me WHAT THE HELL EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT?"

Paulina flew at her. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. If you wanna cheat on your little geek boyfriend, that's your business. But if you think you can mess with what's _mine_, you've got another think coming! I will take you _down_. Do you understand me?"

"You people have all lost your minds! I have never cheated on Danny in my life! And certainly not with anyone Paulina would be interested in. I would_ never_—"

"Save it, Manson," Starr said. "We've all seen the video."

"Video?" Sam shook her head. "What video?"

Starr and Ashley exchanged glances, cruel smiles lighting up their faces. "She doesn't know," Ashley said.

Paulina pushed her aside and started typing something in on the computer keyboard behind her. "It's all over the internet, you little shrew, so you can stop playing innocent." She hit a few more keys, then stepped aside so Sam could see.

She'd called up one of those video file-sharing websites. Paulina took the mouse and clicked on the play button, and Sam's stomach dropped down to her knees as she watched a grainy but unmistakable video of herself from the night before, making out with Danny Phantom.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Elmerton is an existing (neighboring town? borough of Amity Park?) in canon. Haddonfield Village and Eidolon Hill are not. In keeping with the show's tradition of naming most places after ghosts and horror stories, Haddonfield is named after the town in the John Carpenter film, _Halloween_, and Eidolon is another word for Phantom.


	10. Chapter 10

**Ten**

**_Casper High School_**  
_**Amity Park**_

Sam thought she was going to be sick. The video wasn't very high quality—it was grainy because of the lack of light, and a little shaky, as if shot from far away but zoomed into a medium long-shot with Danny turned about three-quarters away from the camera and Sam mostly facing it. It was wide enough that she could see the hill on which they were sitting and part of the tree behind them on the right side of the screen, but close enough to tell who both of them were, and to see a good deal of what they were doing, starting from when Danny first tried to kiss her and she stopped him. Seeing herself on the screen like that, videotaped by someone who had been there, _watching_, made her feel horribly exposed. Even when Nocturn had been stealing their dreams, she hadn't felt this invaded. At least then, it had only been Danny who had seen inside her dream. This… this was a deeply private moment, splashed across the internet for the entire world to see.

"I… who… who did this?" She turned to Paulina, her eyes narrowing as rage surged up through her. "What, are you _stalking_ him or something?"

Paulina barked out a malicious laugh. "You think _I_ did this? Please. Like I'd want the world to see that the otherwise flawless Ghost Boy has such horrible taste in women!"

_The whole world_. Sam swallowed. _My parents. Oh, God, what if my parents see this? And Danny's parents? _At least Danny's parents would know the truth, but still, what would they _think_ of her?

Paulina wasn't done yet. "No one steals my man from me, do you understand me?"

Sam stared at her. "_Your_…? Would you get a _grip_, Paulina?"

"Fenton doesn't even know yet, does he?" Starr asked. "I saw him holding your hand this morning, blissfully unaware that you've been cheating on him."

"I'M NOT—" Sam snapped her mouth shut as her brain finally started to catch up. Her first priority was protecting Danny's identity. If she said the wrong thing, if she got people looking past the surface… Maybe they could come up with a story, some way to explain how she wasn't really cheating without giving away the truth. But if she said something now that contradicted whatever they came up with later, it could make things worse. _You have the right to remain silent. If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you by the malicious, gossiping harpies of Casper High._

Silence… 

Sam blanched. What if there was _sound _on that video? What had they been talking about? How Danny was nothing like Vlad? No, that conversation had ended before they'd started kissing. Had she said something, or had he said something, that would give them away? She turned back to the screen and clicked on the little volume knob, dragging it all the way to the right. All she could hear was white noise, like wind blowing across a microphone. She breathed a small sigh of relief. That was one piece of good news anyway.

"What's he gonna say when he finds out?" Starr asked.

_Danny_… What_ would_ he say? Would his reaction give away the truth? She had to find him, to tell him before someone else did.

Paulina leaned towards Sam, waving a finger in her face. "You listen to me. I don't care about you or your loser boyfriend, but I will make you pay for stealing the Ghost Boy from me. You should never have messed with me. I will make your life a living, breathing hell from this moment on, do you understand me?"

"And how would that be different than any other time I see you?"

"You'd just better watch your back, you batty little ho. You will be sorry." She turned on her heel, whipping hair in Sam's face.

"Hey, Sam, you ready for lunch?" It was Valerie, standing in the doorway. Then she saw Paulina and her court as they swept by her on their way out, and her face hardened. "Paulina. Ashley." She paused, her expression softening, her eyebrows raised in something almost like a question. "Starr."

"Well, Valerie, it looks like good news for you," Starr said. "Maybe you can get Fenton on the rebound." Then she was gone, following in Paulina's wake.

Valerie looked after them, confused. "What is she—" She stopped when she turned and saw Sam's face. "Sam? What's wrong?"

Sam grabbed the mouse and clicked on the exit button, closing the browser window. "I need to talk to Danny. I know why everyone's acting so weird."

"What? Why?"

"No. I need to talk to Danny. I—" Sam looked at Valerie. "No. You get him. And Tucker. Tell them we're eating lunch behind the football bleachers today. I'll explain everything then."

Valerie frowned. "Is everything okay?"

"No. Everything is completely screwed."

* * *

_**Casper High School football field  
Amity Park**_

Sam was pacing behind the bleachers, trying to drain off some of her fury, when Danny, Tucker, and Valerie finally showed up. Danny was carrying a tray for her with a salad and some soymilk, which was sweet of him, since she'd completely forgotten to get something for herself to eat, but right now she wasn't hungry.

"What's going on?" Danny asked as they all sat down in the dirt between the bleachers and the chain link fence at the edge of the football field. "This have something to do with why everyone's acting so bizarre?"

"It has everything to do with it. Apparently, the whole school thinks I'm cheating on you."

Danny looked disgusted. "Yeah, I kinda got that from the way everyone keeps laughing and saying, 'Hey, Fenton, you know your girlfriend's cheating on you?' What the hell is going on? Why does everyone think that?"

"Oh, I don't know. It might have something to do with the video of me making out last night with somebody who isn't exactly you _posted on the freakin' internet_!."

Valerie's eyes widened. Tucker's jaw dropped and he put down his sandwich. Danny looked like she'd just kicked him in the stomach. "Y-you were making out with somebody else last night?"

Sam blew out an exasperated breath. "Focus, Danny! I was with you last night!"

His relief was palpable. "Oh, right. Wait. So what are you talking about?"

"Someone _videotaped_ us and posted it on the internet!"

"_What?"_ He looked completely grossed out. "Someone videotaped us? Who would do that?" He frowned. "I don't get it. Why would that make people think you're cheating on me?"

Sam put her hands on her hips and tilted her head, waiting.

Danny gave her a blank look, and she held her hands up in a _think about it_ gesture. And then his eyes widened. "Oh!" He slapped his hand to his forehead. "Oh _man_."

Tucker and Valerie looked back and forth between them, confused, before Tucker caught on. He gaped at Sam. "You've _got_ to be kidding me. Tell me someone did not videotape you making out with Danny _Phantom_ and then post it on the internet."

"I really really wish I could tell you that."

"Who would do something like that?" Danny asked from behind his hand.

Valerie slapped him upside the head. "Are you completely stupid? You're an _international celebrity_. Have you never heard of a little thing called the paparazzi? What were you _thinking_?" She turned to Sam. "Both of you!"

"I know, okay?" Sam pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to ward off the headache that was forming. "It was stupid out in public like that. But we were in a very isolated spot and there was no one else around."

Tucker was already pulling out his PDA. "Let's take a look and see if we can trace who posted it."

Sam cringed. "Great. Let's all watch. The whole world is, so why not you guys?"

Tucker looked at her over the tops of his glasses as he went online. "What exactly were you doing?"

"Nothing! Tucker, this is not a joke!" She looked at Danny, her cheeks burning. She'd stopped him from doing more than kiss her, but she'd been _so_ tempted not to. She didn't even want to think about how much worse the invasion of privacy could have been.

"Oh man." Tucker frowned at his PDA. "You guys are all over the 'net. Google's coming up with some major hits. There's, like, five video file-sharing sites hosting it, and it's linked in a whole bunch of blogs and websites."

"Fabulous." Sam buried her face in her hands.

Tucker, Danny, and Val crowded around the PDA to see the video, but Sam had seen enough. Danny groaned when it came up, his face turning scarlet. "Oh, man. That's just…"

Valerie shook her head. "This'll be in the tabloids tomorrow."

Sam hung her head further. "Kill me now."

Danny looked at Tucker. "Why didn't you know about this, Tuck? I thought you were always the first person to find stuff online."

"I told you. I was doing a bunch of paperwork at City Hall, and then I was hanging with Valerie until curfew. I didn't go online last night."

"Great. The one night you don't go online, something like this happens." Danny shook his head.

"Hey, I wasn't the one making out in public with my own alter ego's girlfriend."

"It wasn't _public_," Sam insisted. "It was an isolated area, and it was dark, and there was _nobody around_. And this isn't helping figure out what to do about it."

"What if we say the video was faked?" Valerie suggested. "I'll bet Tucker could come up with something that makes it look like this video was doctored. I could probably even get us into Axion Labs to use their equipment."

Tucker shook his head. "There's one problem with that. We don't know who shot this. _They_ know it isn't fake, and they've got the master, which proves it wasn't doctored. The last thing we want is anyone taking a closer look and wondering why we'd go to the trouble of making it look fake when on the surface it's just two teenagers making out. The fact that one of them is supposedly cheating on someone else isn't really that big a scandal beyond Casper High. Unless…" He looked at Sam and Danny. "Uh… so… there isn't more to it than what's posted, is there?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam crossed her arms in front of her, as if that could make her feel less exposed.

"This is a pretty short clip. If whoever did this is holding back something, you know, more—"

"No! There is nothing 'more' to show. Before… that," she waved her hand at the PDA, "we were just talking, but it doesn't seem to have picked up any sound, thank God. And after, it's just more of the same, and then we left."

"We need to find the bastard who did this." Danny looked ready to pound something. "I swear, I'm gonna—"

Sam shot him a warning look. "Not. Helping. We have to figure out what we're going to do _right now,_ when we walk out from behind these bleachers. Because Tucker's right. If we play this wrong, we're just gonna get someone interested in digging deeper."

Tucker winced. "I hate to say this, guys, but probably the only thing we can do is act how we'd act if it were real. Sam should neither confirm nor deny; that way, once we do find out who did this, we'll know if there's any way to make a cover story work. But for now, the rest of us need to act exactly how we would if we thought that was somebody else in that video."

"Wonderful." Sam leaned her head back and let out a long breath. "So not only do I get to be the slut of Casper High, I get to be a pariah in my own circle of friends and break up with my boyfriend."


	11. Chapter 11

**Eleven**

**_Casper High School football field_**  
_**Amity Park**_

"_What?"_ Danny shouted loud enough to startle Sam. "We are _not_ breaking up."

"Of course not, but we have to make it look like you're mad—"

"No. This is stupid. You didn't do anything."

She sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. "I know, Danny, but we have to act like you_ think_ I did. If you saw that video and it was someone else, you would completely freak."

"You don't think I'd give you the benefit of the doubt? I've been hearing it from people all morning, and I didn't actually _believe_ it, because I trust you."

"Danny, it's on _video_. You would freak. Look at how you responded just now when I told you about it and you forgot I was with you last night. And in the car this morning, you had a cow because of something completely inconsequential that happened _two years ago_. There is no way you would even speak to me after something like this."

"Dude, she's right. If that weren't you in that video, you'd be totally buggin'."

"But she didn't do anything wrong. If anything, this is my fault. I'm the one who stayed in ghost form after we caught the Box Ghost. If I'd have changed back—"

"We flew to that hill, Danny. If you would've changed back there, then there would've been a lot more on that videotape for people to talk about." Sam reached over and put a hand on his arm. "I'd rather everyone think I was a slut than have everyone know you're a half-ghost. The Guy's in White—"

"AUUGGH!" Danny brushed her hand away and stood up, knocking over his forgotten lunch in the process. "I am so sick of the Guys in White, and all this fear over what they may or may not do to me! Keeping my identity secret isn't worth all this!"

Sam jumped up beside him. "Yes, it is. This is just… a little embarrassment. It'll blow over. You getting locked away in some kind of Area 51 won't."

"So, what—I can't even talk to you now because we've gotta act like we broke up? When was the last time we had a fight that lasted more than a few hours? I _hate_ this idea."

"I hate it, too, but it's the only thing we can do until we get more information. When we know who did this—"

"I'm gonna wail on the bastard so hard—"

"STOP! Don't go there, okay? Let's just focus on what we can do that's constructive."

"I dunno." Valerie looked up at them. "Wailing on the idiot who did this sounds constructive to me."

Sam glared down at her. "Well, it isn't." She turned to Danny. "When we know more, we'll be able to figure out some sort of cover story, like Tucker said."

"That's not good enough, Sam. I'm not gonna listen to days and weeks of people laughing at me for being taken in, or calling you…" He shook his head. "No way. Whoever did this pays."

"I'll help," Valerie offered. But Danny had had enough. He turned and stomped off toward the school, leaving his lunch uneaten in the dirt.

"Danny—" Sam began, but Tucker jumped to his feet and stopped her.

"You're the one he's not supposed to be speaking to, remember?"

Sam looked away, clenching her jaw. "He's right. I _hate_ this."

Tucker gave her arm a sympathetic squeeze. "It'll blow over soon. And I'll keep an eye on Danny in the meantime." He squeezed her arm once more before jogging off after Danny.

Valerie sighed. "Typical. The guys run off, and we're stuck cleaning up." She got up onto her knees and started collecting the lunch trays and the mostly untouched food.

Sam looked down at Valerie, and all her rage and frustration at the whole situation found outlet. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Uh… picking up the trash? You wanna give me a hand with this?"

"I'm not talking about the trash, Valerie. I'm talking about egging Danny on. That is so not what he needs right now."

"What are you, his mother?"

"No, but I've known him a hell of a lot longer than you have, and I've seen what happens when he gets like this. It never ends well."

"Don't you think it's time he stopped taking all the crap he gets and fought back?"

"No, I don't. He's supposed to be the good guy, not use his powers to wail on some idiot paparazzi just because he can. He'd be no better than Dash."

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Oh, so now you're Uncle Ben. 'With great powers' blah blah blah." She left the trays and stood up. "That's all well and good, but sometimes the only way to get through to people who trash your life is to do a little trashing back."

"Like you did with Danny for two years?"

Valerie crossed her arms in front of her chest. "And you accuse _me_ of not letting things go? You gonna hang onto that grudge forever, or am I always gonna be under suspicion?"

"I dunno, Valerie. You tell me." Sam's eyes narrowed to cold slivers. "You're the one into doing 'a little trashing back.' That suit of yours have any video recording equipment?"

Valerie's jaw dropped and her face turned red with anger. "Oh, no you didn't! You did _not_ just accuse me of videotaping you!"

"Why not? How do we know for sure you're really over everything you think he did to you?"

"You are _trippin'_! First of all, he's my friend. And I _thought_ you were too. I would never, _ever_ do something like that to either of you. Second, last time I checked, my suit didn't have an invisibility mode, and it's not exactly subtle. I think you might have noticed if I'd have been there. And third, I was working until eight, and then I was hanging out with Tucker for the rest of the night."

That last one punctured through Sam's rage, deflating it and leaving shame in its wake. She put a hand out to stop Valerie from leaving in a huff. "Valerie, wait! I'm sorry!" Valerie stopped, but didn't say anything, and Sam looked down at the ground. "You're right. That was an awful thing to say. I'm just… I'm angry at myself for letting this whole mess happen, and I shouldn't take it out on you."

"It's more than that, Sam. You really don't trust me."

Sam looked up at her. "Okay, try and look at it from my point of view. Two years, Valerie. Two years I watched you go after someone who's really important to me. Do you think it's easy to just forget all that just because Danny says you're past it and we're all gonna be friends now? You could've really hurt him!"

"And how do you think all that makes me feel? You've been in on it from the beginning, so you don't know what it's like to find out you've been totally played."

"_Played_? We weren't trying to play you, Valerie! We were doing the same thing we're trying to do now—keep the wrong people from knowing who he is!"

"That's exactly the problem! _I_ was the wrong person! I know, Sam, it's my own fault," she said when Sam started to respond. "Because of the way I kept going after him. I get that I'm the one who screwed up. You don't have to constantly shove it in my face! I try so hard to show you I'm not a threat, but nothing I do is ever good enough for you. If Danny can get over it, why can't you?"

"Of course Danny got over it! He _liked_ you! Even knowing that you couldn't stand his other half, he liked you anyway!"

Valerie frowned. "Is that what this is about? Me and Danny and the grand total of three dates we went on a million years ago? You gonna hold that against me forever, too?"

"I don't hold it against you, Valerie." Sam let out a frustrated breath. "It's just… it's hard, okay? You are the only girl he ever liked that wasn't just some plastic Barbie doll. And why wouldn't he like you? You've got it all—you're as pretty as Paulina, but with an actual personality, you're the only person even close to his equal in ghost fighting and, let's face it, even _I_ think that suit and jet sled are hot. You're funny, and smart, and a lot of fun to have around—"

Valerie blinked. "You think I'm fun to have around?"

"Of course you're fun to have around! That's why it's so hard, because there's absolutely no reason why he wouldn't still like you."

"Except for the only reason that matters. _You_." Valerie shook her head. "He never would've even looked at me twice if you'd have just told him you liked him in the first place. You've always been the most important person in his world; anyone with eyes can see that." She put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. "The boy's just a little dense, that's all."

A grin tugged at Sam's lips in spite of herself. "Yeah, okay. He kinda is."

Valerie smiled a moment, then looked serious again. "I don't know how I can convince you I'm not a threat, Sam. Not to him, and not to you. I… I've never had friends like you and Danny and Tucker before, who aren't constantly trying to one-up me in the pecking order, or who don't judge me—at least not for how I look or dress or how cool I am. I think that's what attracted me to Danny in the first place, you know? He actually looked past the money my daddy didn't have anymore, and the horrible apartment, and the lousy job, and he just let me be me. Does that make any sense?"

Sam thought about how she'd first become friends with Danny and Tucker when they'd shared a lunch detention in seventh grade. Danny had just started talking to her like she was a regular person instead of a freak with a nose ring and half her head shaved. No one had ever done that before, just talked to her. "Yeah, it does. It makes a lot of sense."

"I appreciate it even more now, knowing that all of that was in spite of the way I'd treated his ghost half. But you have to believe I don't like him that way anymore, and Lord knows he doesn't like me that way. He's too in love with you."

Sam blushed and looked down at her feet. "He's not in _love_ with me. I know he likes me, but—"

"Please. That boy is so far gone it's not even funny. Even if I were still interested—which I'm not—I wouldn't have a prayer."

Sam looked up again. "Val, I'm _really_ sorry. I've been pretty hard on you, and you're right, I should've let it go a long time ago."

"We cool then? For real? 'Cause, I dunno Sam. Hanging out with Danny and Tucker is great, but sometimes I just really miss having girlfriends. Don't you?"

"Girlfriends?" Sam snorted. "I'm really not into the whole fashion and shopping and—" she mimed talking into a cell phone, affecting a high, giggly voice— "'so he's like… and she's all…' thing."

Valerie wrinkled her nose in disgust. "You have been hanging out with the boys way too long if that's all you think girlfriends do. I'm talking about spending time with someone who, I dunno, actually gets that Terminatra isn't a better movie monster than Femalien because of the cool toys. She's better because her movies are more character driven. It's—"

"All about the character development," Sam finished along with her. "Thank you! All Tucker and Danny notice is Terminatra's big guns and her big… guns."

Valerie snorted. "Don't I know it. Although… her jet pack is pretty sweet, and I wouldn't mind having a few of those cybertronic weapons. But, yeah. It's her backstory, how she became a bounty hunter in the first place—"

"With the thing with her father, and the brother she never knew about until the aliens from Delta 6 came down and blasted her entire planet with proton torpedoes? I know!"

"See?" Valerie smirked at her. "Girl stuff."

"Yeah. Now that you mention it, it was kinda nice when Jazz started hanging out with us. I sorta miss her now that she's gone off to college. Just don't tell her that." Sam sighed. "And I really am sorry I said what I did. I was way out of line. I—" In the distance, the warning bell rang. "Great. Time to wade back into the cesspool. I just can't wait to see what new and interesting ways Paulina will come up with to get back at me for 'stealing' her 'boyfriend.'"

"Please. That girl is delusional."

Sam gritted her teeth. "We'd better not go back together. If we're gonna play this like you believe I was with somebody else, then you probably shouldn't be speaking to me."

"Wrong." Valerie linked her arm in Sam's. "'Cause another thing girlfriends do is stick with each other, even if one of them does something stupid. Danny's got Tucker. I'll hang with you. Play the go-between."

"Come on, Val. If that were real, you'd totally take Danny's side."

"Not necessarily. I'd like to think I'd give you the benefit of the doubt. Besides, if Starr's any indication, everyone's already thinking I'm gonna try and use this to get Danny on the rebound." She made a face. "_So_ don't wanna give them any more reason to think that. There is one thing, though…" She looked down at Sam's hand. "You should probably take the ring off."

Sam sighed as she held out her left hand and looked at the bright green class ring Danny had given her. "I didn't think of that. I suppose you're right." She slipped the ring off her finger and stuck it in her pocket, her heart aching. Why, oh why, hadn't they been more careful?

Valerie put a hand on her shoulder. "It won't take too long before everyone's forgotten, and you and Danny can 'make up.'"

Sam nodded, regarding her a moment. "Thanks, Val. I… I don't really deserve this after the way I didn't give _you_ the benefit of the doubt."

"Bygones." She looked over her shoulder. "Ugh. We do need to clean up those trays, though."

"As long as you get the ones with the meatloaf. _So_ not touching that stuff."


	12. Chapter 12

**Twelve**

**_Casper High School_**  
_**Amity Park**_

"Danny, wait up!"

Danny didn't stop, but he slowed enough that Tucker could catch up to him before they got back to the school building. "Nothing you can say will make this better, so don't even try."

"Come on, dude. You've dealt with worse."

Danny swung his head around to level an icy glare at him. "I've gotta go in there and listen to the entire school tell me I've been a complete tool, _and_ I've gotta listen to them bag on Sam, and I can't even say anything because I have to pretend I'm furious with her. That's pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel."

"They've been doing it all morning, and you've been able to blow it off. Why's it any different now?"

"Because this morning I knew they were wrong."

"You still know they're wrong."

"Yeah, but I have to_ act_ like they're right. I have to take it, Tucker. I have to take it when they tell me I've been played, and I have to take it when they call my girlfriend…" He gritted his teeth. "This is so wrong. I'm the one who messed up. I'm the one who wasn't careful about being in ghost form with Sam. I'd rather just own up to it than listen to this crap."

"I got two words for why you don't wanna do that."

"I know, I know. 'Guys in White.' I don't give a damn about the stupid Guys in White. I've dodged 'em before, I'll dodge 'em again." He frowned at Tucker over his shoulder. "And that's three words."

"Because that's not what I was gonna say. My two words are way scarier than the Guys in White—Sam's parents."

Danny stopped and slapped his palm to his forehead. "Oh _man_. I don't believe this! Just when I was finally making some headway in getting them to not completely hate my guts. I was supposed to go to dinner with them on Friday! I'm sure they'll be thrilled to see me making out with their daughter on the internet."

"Danny _Phantom_ was making out with their daughter on the internet," Tucker corrected. "_You're_ still golden."

"Except for the part where I supposedly just broke up with her!"

"But when it's all over, you'll come out looking like the nice guy. There's your silver lining."

Danny shook his head. "Have you completely lost your mind? This is so messed up. This is so unbelievably messed up. If they ever find out that was me, on top of the ghost thing…" He looked at Tucker. "I'm completely screwed. I swear, Tucker, when I find out who did this—"

The warning bell rang, and they started moving again. Danny grimaced as they opened the door and entered the building, trying their best to blend into the crowd of students changing classes. They'd made it as far as Danny's locker when a voice rang out from down the hall. "Well, well. If it isn't Fen-tool."

Danny clenched his jaw as he opened his locker, trying to ignore Dash, but he came up beside them and leaned against the next locker. "So where's your spooky girlfriend?"

"I'm so not in the mood right now, Dash." Danny slammed his locker shut and tried to walk away, but Dash blocked him. Kwan was with him, and stood on the other side, fencing Danny and Tucker in.

Dash, feigning chagrin, slapped his forehead. "Oh, that's right. She had places to go, people way better than you to do…"

Danny's eyes narrowed to slivers. "I mean it, Dash. Lay off."

Tucker put a cautioning hand on Danny's shoulder, but he shrugged it off.

Dash merely laughed. "Or what? It's not my fault you got hosed. Who knew the goth chick could be such a stone cold user?"

"Funny you should mention cold." Danny crossed his arms, and with his right hand hidden in the crook of his left arm, pointed his finger at the spot where Dash's shoulder was leaning against the locker and let out a small blast of his ice powers. "I'd say one of these days that mouth of yours is gonna get you iced, but it looks like I'm too late."

Dash frowned. "Huh?" But when he tried to stand up straight, he found that the shoulder of his jacket was frozen to the locker and he couldn't move. "What the…?"

Danny smirked. "I knew you needed to chill, but this is—"

"_Children of the Frost_! Mr. Baxter, what happened to you?"

Danny and Tucker exchanged nervous glances as Mr. Lancer approached.

"I don't know! My arm just froze to the locker!"

Lancer narrowed his eyes. "Froze to the locker? What are you—stop right there, Mr. Fenton, Mr. Foley!" Danny and Tucker, who had been trying to slip away unnoticed, stopped, and Danny cringed as Mr. Lancer leveled a hard gaze in his direction. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?"

Danny shrugged, hoping his expression was convincingly innocent. "How would I?"

"How indeed." Lancer turned back to Dash. "I'm sure it's just a malfunction with the school air conditioning. Mr. Kwan? Go to the main office and ask for a janitor to come and thaw out Mr. Baxter. Mr. Foley? Get to class."

Tucker nodded and backed away. When Danny tried to follow, Lancer clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Not you, Mr. Fenton. I'd like a word with you in my office."

Danny's shoulder slumped. "Yes, Mr. Lancer." He followed the assistant principal back to his office. _Great. Of all the teachers who had to catch me, it had to be the one who knows about my powers._

Once in his office, Lancer firmly closed the door and ushered Danny to a seat while he leaned against his desk. "Care to offer an explanation for the sudden cold front in the school hallway?"

Danny let out a frustrated huff of air. "I'm just sick of all the crap, okay? I know you're all about school spirit and think the jocks can do no wrong, but you don't see the stuff Dash does. He is the biggest bully in the school, constantly wailing on anyone he can find smaller and weaker, and I'm sick of it!"

"You were protecting another student, then?"

"Well, no…"

"In imminent danger yourself? Dash was being violent and you were merely trying to get away?"

"No." Danny slumped down in his seat. "It isn't just the punching people, it's the things he says. About me, about Sam, about anyone who isn't one of the popular kids. We shouldn't have to put up with it, but the teachers don't do anything about it."

"I see. So Dash was calling you names, and your answer was to use your rather extraordinary abilities to get even."

Danny folded his arms and looked away.

"I could quote Winston Churchill, or Franklin Roosevelt, or John F. Kennedy about power and responsibility, but I suspect you're more familiar with Stan Lee."

"I know, I know. 'With great power comes great responsibility.' I get it." Danny turned back to Lancer, glaring. "But why does no one ever ride Dash about his great power? Yeah, okay, they're not _super_ powers, but he is really strong, and he gets away with beating the snot out of people all the time. Why doesn't anyone ever do anything?"

"This isn't about Dash, this is about you. And, I suspect, a certain video that's been popping up all over the internet today."

Danny felt his face burn and leaned forward in his chair, his fists clenched at his side. "That is nobody's business but mine and Sam's!"

"You're a celebrity, Danny. Part of the price you pay for adulation is that everyone wants to know every detail of your personal life. That was one of the reasons you chose not to reveal your identity to the world after Antarctica, was it not? So that you could still have a private life? But when you're in your public persona, you have to expect to attract public interest. It goes with the territory."

"I know, I know, I screwed up. I get that, too. And the only way I can cover it is to let everyone think… really horrible things about Sam, and it isn't her fault, it's mine. So when Dash started in, I'd just had enough."

Lancer nodded. "You're angry with yourself, so you took it out on Dash."

"No! I'm angry with Dash! He is a complete waste of space on this planet, and I'm sick of having to put up with his abuse!"

"Nevertheless, using your powers to get even with someone for giving you grief over a mistake that you made in the first place is not really the best use of those powers, wouldn't you agree?" When Danny didn't respond, he sighed. "Danny, you are a remarkable young man. You have taken these gifts you've been given and have chosen to use them help others, sometimes even to your own detriment. But you also have a tendency to be lazy and to go for the path of least resistance. Using your powers to get back at Dash or anyone else who gives you a hard time is a copout. It's _easy_. But you need to look beyond the easy way out. You need to figure out how to deal with the Dash Baxters of the world the hard way, the way that allows you to keep your own self-respect intact. Because pushing back just because you can is stooping to their level, and frankly, it's beneath the young man I saw in Antarctica who threw everything he had, even his own life, into making things better for everyone."

"So because I saved the world, I get called out on the mat when I screw up, but Dash can be a jerk all he wants? How is that fair?"

"You keep looking for life to be fair, but it's not, and you have no control over that. The only thing you do have control over is how you respond. Are you going to take the higher road, or are you going to take the easy way out?"

"Okay, so what is the higher road? How do I respond to people constantly knocking me or the people I care about?"

"That's a question you'll have to answer for yourself. And you'll have some time to mull it over in detention after school today."

Danny groaned. "Detention? How are you going to explain giving me a detention for freezing Dash to a locker?"

Lancer gave him a humorless grin. "Because I know about your abilities and why you are often late or absent when you should be here, I have overlooked many instances when you otherwise would have gotten detention. The flip side of that is that I am not willing to overlook times when you make bad choices about those abilities. Officially, you'll be serving detention for a missed English assignment. If you have a problem with that little white lie, I'll be happy to go to Principal Ishiyama and tell her the real reason."

"Fine. Missed English assignment." Danny slumped in his seat and crossed his arms.

"Good. Then I'll see you after school, Mr. Fenton."

* * *

_**Eidolon Hill  
Amity Park**_

Sam was never so grateful for the solitude of her car as she was while driving home from school that day. Normally, she'd be with Danny and Tucker and maybe Val. They'd hit the Nasty Burger, or maybe she'd talk them into stopping by Skulk and Lurk, or they'd talk her into going to the video arcade. Now, only Val was publicly speaking to her, and she was house hunting with her dad, so there was no one for Sam to drive home, even if she'd wanted to.

The worst had been their last period English class, which all four of them shared. Danny and Tucker had sat on the opposite side of the room pretending to ignore her and Val, which would have been bad enough without all the other students staring and whispering. Worse, their teacher was Mr. Lancer, and although he did his best to redirect attention away from gossip and onto American Literature, the fact that they were studying _The Scarlet Letter_ was not exactly helping.

She also was more than a little angry with Danny for the stunt he'd pulled with Dash not five minutes after he'd left them, and was actually kinda glad when Val had told her Lancer had caught him and given him a detention for it. With all of this weighing on her mind, she was looking forward to getting home and locking herself in her room away from all human contact.

Then again, home was where her parents would be. Although she fervently hoped that their lack of 'net savvy meant they hadn't seen the video, for consistency sake, she would still have to pretend to them that she and Danny had broken up, and was not looking forward to the glee this would likely inspire. With any luck, they would be at the club, or organizing whatever charity function they had latched onto this month, or something out of the house and she could get to her room without anyone noticing her. Her hopes were dashed, however, when she pulled into the garage behind their home and saw all of her parents' cars accounted for. Grimacing, she let herself in through the back door, thinking that she might be able to manage to slip up the back staircase and miss her parents yet.

"Samantha? Is that you?"

_Darn it._ Sam sighed, then called back to her mother. "Yeah, Mom, it's me. I'm gonna go to my room, okay? I've got a ton of homework."

"Sam, sweetie, would you come into the sitting room? Your father and I need to talk to you." Her voice was high-pitched and brittle with tension.

_So much for them having missed the video. _Sam sighed again, then squared her shoulders. _Might as well face the music now and get it over with._ Her head held high, she walked from the kitchen out to the sitting room at the front of the house—and stopped short.

Seated on the sofa drinking tea with her parents were two burly men. Identical in almost every aspect except skin color—one was black and the other was white—they both had clean-shaven heads and wore black sunglasses, black gloves, and pristine white suits.

Sam gasped. _The Guys in White!_


	13. Chapter 13

**Thirteen**

**_The Manson residence_**  
_**Amity Park**_

"Samantha, sweetheart, this is Special Operative O. and Special Operative K."

Sam wrenched her eyes from the two white-suited men to her mother. Pamela Manson was seated on the edge of the divan, her red hair coiffed into an impeccable bouffant that would've made Jackie Kennedy proud. She was wearing a starched, mint-green floral-print dress, and was holding her china teacup in a white-gloved hand. As always, the picture-perfect hostess. But Sam could see that her smile was too wide, her turquoise eyes were twitching, and her grip on the teacup would likely shatter it. Swallowing, she continued her introduction. "They're from the gov—"

"I know who they are," Sam snapped, turning back to the Guys in White.

The black man, Operative K., turned to his partner. "Hostility."

"A classic indicator of ecto-manipulation." Operative O. gave a curt nod of agreement.

"You think she's…?" Sam's father was seated across from her mother, and he had that same tense look about him.

"My poor Sammy!" her mother wailed.

Sam glared at the two government agents. "I don't know why you're here, but I have nothing to say to you."

"Samantha!" Her father's expression turned from fear to anger. "Sit down right now, young lady. We want to know about this video of you with that Ghost Boy that's posted all over the internet."

"I have nothing to say." Too angry to be embarrassed, Sam remained standing as she continued to scowl at the Guys in White. Had _they_ made the video? Were they staking out Amity Park in the hopes of catching Danny Phantom doing something in violation of the federal Anti-Ecto Control Act?

Her mother looked distraught, but remained composed. Putting her teacup down on the coffee table, she folded her hands in her lap. "Please, Sam, we're trying to understand how this could happen. We thought you were seeing that Danny Fenton boy."

"What do you care? You never liked him anyway!"

"He's better than… than…" Her father threw his hands up as if at a loss.

"The word is _ghost_, Dad. It's not an obscene word!"

"It is when you're engaging in obscene behavior with one!"

"Jeremy, stop." Sam's mother's tone was authoritative, but Sam could see the worry behind her eyes and in the way she gripped her hands together in her lap. In her best attempt at a placating voice, her mother said to her, "We just want to understand, sweetie. You've been dating the Fenton boy for a few months now, and you always say how much you like him, so you can see why we're a little confused to find out you seem to be… involved with the Ghost Boy as well."

Sam looked from her parents to the Guys in White. If they were the ones who made the video, then they would know it was real, and denying it would be a mistake. But if they weren't the ones, if they were here just because they found the video like everyone else and were hoping to stir up trouble, then it was best to keep open the option for plausible deniability later. "I told you. I have nothing to say."

O. looked back and forth between her parents. "I was afraid of as much. I'd like you to allow us to bring her in for testing—"

"_What?"_ Sam gaped at them. "Testing for _what_?"

"Is that really necessary?" Sam's mother asked. "Isn't there some other way…?"

"Testing for what?" Sam repeated. "I'm a human being and a citizen of the United States. You have no right to take me in for anything, not without a warrant."

"'Unless exigent circumstances supercede the authority of the judge or magistrate.'" K flashed her a cold grin. "I looked it up. It means 'urgent; requiring immediate action.' Like when there is reason to believe that a minor is being controlled by a ghost for licentious purposes."

"_Controlled_? Are you kidding me with this?"

Her father looked like he was going to be sick. "Then how else can you explain that… that… video. You, with that…"

"GHOST! He's a_ ghost_, but so what? He saved the entire world, and you think he'd _control_ me? So he could…" It was then that it hit Sam how serious this was. _Licentious purposes…_ What they were accusing him of was nothing short of sexual assault—the ghost version of slipping her Rohypnol.

"It's not the fact that he's a ghost, honey." Her mom was still trying to placate her, but her voice was cracking. "It's that you're seeing this other boy, and it just isn't like you to do something like this. Your father and I, we don't understand everything you like and everything you do, but we do know you are loyal to the people you care about. So this doesn't make _sense_."

"He would never do something like that. He wouldn't overshadow me like that, and it doesn't even work that way anyway. He has to actually go _into_ the person. He can't just wave his hand and control them from outside."

K. raised his eyebrow at her. "You seem to know a lot about this… what do you call it? Overshadowing?"

Sam bit her lip, mentally berating herself for saying too much. "I'm dating a guy whose parents study ghosts for a living. Of course I know a lot about them!"

"There have been several documented incidents of ghosts controlling others externally," O. said. "The one who calls herself Ember McLean, for example. Or the plant ghost, Undergrowth."

"Not all ghosts have the same powers. Ember controls people through her guitar, and Undergrowth through his Mind Vine. Most ghosts can't do that. I would think the hotshot government ghost-hunting squad would know that."

Ignoring the jibe, K. leaned forward in his seat. "What about Vlad Masters? He managed to manipulate every voter in the city of Amity Park into voting for him."

Sam chewed on the inside of her cheek. Vlad's powers were a little too close for comfort. "Danny Phantom has never tried to control me."

"How do we know, Sam?" Her mother was still clutching her hands together in a death grip. "How can we be sure?"

K. and O. exchanged looks, then O. turned to her. "I think we should pursue this, Mrs. Manson. If you and your husband file a formal complaint against the Ghost Boy, we—"

"No." Sam didn't shout, but there was so much authority in her tone that everyone stopped and stared at her. Ignoring the Guys in White, she looked at her mother. "I'm telling you, he has never controlled me. So here's the deal. Believe me, show these men the door, and all of this will blow over and everyone will move on and stop caring whether or not your little girl was caught on video making out with the Ghost Boy. But if you make any kind of legal move against him, anything at all that would damage his reputation or put him in danger from the Ghost Gestapo here, then I swear to you, I will contact every newspaper, magazine, tabloid, and talk show in existence and go on record as saying we've been secretly dating. This story will become bigger than you can possibly imagine, and the Manson family will be right in the middle of it for a very long time. So you decide what you want to do, but I will not be a party to destroying someone who didn't do anything wrong."

Her father's face turned red. "Listen here, young lady—"

"No, you listen. Danny Phantom is a hero. He saved the entire world, but all you see is that he's _different_, so he must be bad. And they—" She indicated the Guys in White with a wave of her hand. "They've built an entire government agency on the whole 'different is bad' premise. Well, they're wrong, and you're wrong. He's not bad, and he didn't do anything, and if I have to stand up on national television and prove it, I will."

O. shook his head. "See? That kind of hostility is a sure sign she's being controlled."

"Actually, that's a sure sign she's herself," Sam's father said. He exchanged a look with her mother, then turned to the Guys in White. "As much as we do not like our daughter's behavior in that video, we can't in good conscience make a complaint against the Ghost Boy if she says he didn't make her do anything against her will."

Sam's shoulders sagged in relief, but then tensed right up again when K. said, "This is a clear two-alpha-niner. We don't need your cooperation to pursue this."

Sam's eyes narrowed to hard slivers. "I think you do. The vast majority of the world all but worships Danny Phantom. The only way you can make any move against him without a massive public outcry is to vilify him. That's what this is really about, isn't it? Finding a way to smear him so you can haul him off to some sort of government installation without a huge public backlash. How well do you think it'll work if the so-called 'victim's' parents aren't even on board? How well will it work if we become the next cute celebrity couple? We'll be so adorable and sweet, they'll come up with one of those horrible combination names for us, like… I dunno, 'Phanson' or something equally revolting, and he'll be even more popular than ever. Is that what you want?"

They stared at her from behind their sunglasses, and she stared back—a silent battle of wills. But they were only fighting for their jobs and their agenda, while she was fighting for Danny.

They didn't have a prayer.

After a moment, the two partners looked to her parents instead, and O. reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out a business card. "Here's our card, Mrs. Manson. If you and Mr. Manson change your minds, if you have even the slightest suspicion that your daughter is being controlled by this ghost, then please don't hesitate to call." He straightened his jacket and looked at his partner. "Let's roll."

"Let's roll," K. echoed back, and the two of them left.

Sam let out a long breath and turned to her parents. "Thank you for believing me."

"I don't know that we do," her mother said. "I…" She turned to her husband, her fright finally cracking through the veneer of control. "Oh, Jeremy, I'm not sure we did the right thing. I don't want our baby dragged through the press any more than you do, but what if there's more to what's on that video? What if he… he…"

Sam exploded. "What if he what?"

"Samantha, don't make me say it out loud."

"He didn't do anything!" Suddenly, plausible deniability didn't matter to her anymore. Nothing mattered but protecting Danny from what they were thinking about him. "Everything you saw on that video, I _wanted_ to happen. I _chose_ to be there, and I _chose_ to do everything we did."

"And what exactly did you do?" Her father's voice was almost as strained as her mother's, with a hint of anger.

"Nothing! We didn't do anything. We kissed, that's it! Watch the video—you'll see more action at any given moment in the halls of Casper High than you'll see on that video!"

"But how do we know what happened after?"

"You could try trusting me! I don't do that, and neither does he!"

"Trusting you? _Trusting_ you? How on Earth are we supposed to trust you?" Her mother's face was pinched and her eyes hard. "Just two nights ago, you were out with Danny Fenton. Your father even invited him to the club, for Pete's sake! And now you're kissing this Ghost Boy? Not that it surprises me that you would do something like this behind our backs, but behind Danny's back as well? Do you really need to rebel against us that much that you'd hurt your friend, too? Is that what this is about? And if you'd do that, then how do we know what else you would or wouldn't do? Or that that… _ghost_ didn't force you into any of it?" She stopped, shaking her head. "How do we know, Samantha? How do we trust you?"

Sam closed her eyes, realizing how deep a hole she'd dug herself into. "Mom, I—"

Her dad cut her off, furious. "Don't say anything more, young lady. Just go to your room. You are grounded for the rest of your natural life, or until your mother and I sort out exactly what is going on here. Whichever comes first."

"Fine." Sam turned to go up the stairs, feeling queasy. What were she and Danny going to do now? She had to find a way to warn him that the Guys in White were on the warpath, but knowing them, they now had her house under surveillance, including wiretaps and all sorts of ghost-detecting equipment. How was she going to talk to him or get a message to him? Then she had an idea. She stopped and looked over the railing at her parents. "Can I call a friend? I left the book I'm reading for English at school, and I need to borrow a copy from someone."

"No, you may not call Danny or Tucker. You're grounded," her mother answered.

Sam let an edge of bitterness creep into her voice. "Every kid in school saw that video. Do you really think Danny and Tucker are even speaking to me? I'm talking about calling Valerie Gray. You might know her dad, Damon Gray. He used to belong to the country club. I just wanna see if she can come by for, like, two minutes to drop off the book."

"Oh, yes, I remember Damon Gray." Sam's mother looked at her father. "His wife died several years ago, remember? And then those money problems. So sad. Such a decent man."

Sam bit down on her lip to keep her expression the same, but as soon as one of her parents called someone _decent_, she knew they were approved. They would let her call Valerie.

"Yes, good man," Sam's dad agreed.

Her mom looked up at her. "Fine. Call your friend, and she can come over just long enough to drop off the book. But no other phone calls, no TV, and no internet."

Sam grimaced. "Believe me. The last thing I wanna do right now is surf the internet."


	14. Chapter 14

**Fourteen**

**_Fenton Works_**  
_**Amity Park**_

With no ride home from school after detention, Danny was stuck walking. He could have gone ghost and flown, but soaring through the clouds just didn't seem to fit his black mood, while the long walk was helping him bleed off some of the aggravation he was feeling. Not much, but a little. School had been a nightmare, particularly last period English, where Sam was just across the room, and he couldn't even look at her. All he wanted to do was get home, hole up in his room, and maybe play a videogame to get his mind off everything. He shook his head. No, what he really wanted to do was talk to Sam. Maybe if he stayed invisible, he could go over to her house after it got dark. It was almost dusk now. He picked up his pace as he turned onto his street, but stopped short at the sight of the bright red convertible coupe parked in front of Fenton Works.

Jazz? Home on a weekday? This can't be good. 

Usually, Danny was happy to see his sister. A freshman in psychology and parapsychology at Crane College in nearby Canterville, Jazz lived on campus, but often came home on the weekends so she could go patrolling with Danny and his friends, or check out the latest inventions their parents had made. Her appearance in the middle of the week, however, could only mean one thing—she'd seen the video and was planning on haranguing him until he "talked about his feelings." _And the day just keeps getting better_.

As he got closer to the house, the front door opened, and Jazz herself stepped out. Now that he didn't see her every single day, whenever he did see her, Danny was always struck by how much she looked like their mother. It wasn't obvious on the surface—her hair was much longer and a brighter red, and her eyes were aqua-blue instead of darker indigo like their mom's. She was leaner, too, without their mother's more well-defined curves. But the shape of her face, the roundness of her eyes and the way they lit up when she smiled, and how she carried herself with such a confident grace always made Danny think of his mom.

Jazz caught sight of him, smiled and waved, then came down the porch steps to greet him. "There you are, little brother. I've been waiting for you." She pulled him into a big bear hug.

"Yeah, I sorta had detention," Danny admitted as they separated.

"I know. Lancer called Mom and Dad."

He cringed. "How mad are they?"

"About the detention? Maybe a five-minute-lecture worth. About the other thing? Let's just say they might make you take a chaperone with you from now on when you go out with Sam. At least until you're thirty."

"Oh _man_!" Danny threw his head back and closed his eyes. "They've seen it, then? And you, too, I take it, judging by the mid-week visit."

"Who hasn't? It's all over the web. You and Sam okay?"

"Well, let's see. Other than the fact that I can't even talk to her or see her because I have to pretend we broke up because I think she's cheating on me, we're just great, thanks."

"Then I have one question for you." She took the heel of her hand and cuffed him on the side of the head. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

"OW! Thanks for the support!"

"You know you always have my support, Danny, but this really wasn't your brightest move."

"I know, I know. I've been hearing it all day, and I'm sure I'll be hearing it more from Mom and Dad as soon as I go in there. I get that I messed up, okay? So can we just leave it alone?"

Jazz put her arm around his shoulders. "It's not all that bad. They'll yell for a couple of minutes, and then they'll get all worried and protective, and it'll be fine."

"You and I define 'fine' very differently."

"This too shall pass, little brother." She gave him a squeeze as they started up the steps. "Anything else going on? Mom mentioned something about a ghost coming after you at City Hall, and a Time Master? Maybe I can help you out, as long as I'm home for the rest of the week."

Danny paused on the steps. "The rest of the week? Since when do _you_ skip classes?"

"Oh, it's not that big a deal. I'm way ahead of the reading in Psych, I finished my Freshman Comp paper weeks ago, my roommate is gonna share her Chem notes with me—she owes me after I helped her get a B on the final last semester—and my Parapsych and Calculus classes are earlier in the week."

"Geez, Jazz. Aren't you taking any fun classes?"

"Psych and Parapsych_are_ fun."

"You are such a nerd. How we can be related is—"

Car tires squealed behind them, and Danny and Jazz turned around. A non-descript white sedan with black-tinted windows had pulled up to the curb behind Jazz's car. Both front doors opened simultaneously, and a pair of all-too-familiar men in white suits emerged. "Daniel Fenton? We'd like to have a word with you."

Danny froze as Jazz took him by the shoulders and pulled her back against him, protective. "What do you want?" Her voice was hard enough to cut glass.

"Jasmine Fenton, right?" The driver, the one who called himself "K," stepped around the car. "We just want a word with your brother."

"He's a minor. If you want to speak with him, our parents will have to be present."

"Oh, come on, kid," the other one, "O.," said, ignoring Jazz and looking straight at Danny. "I know we have some past history…"

"You mean like the time you chased after my two best friends with rockets because you thought they were hanging out with a ghost? Or when you trashed my room just because Vlad Masters said to? Or how about the time you tricked my parents into selling Fenton Works so you could use the Fenton Portal to try and destroy the Ghost Zone, which would've destroyed our world along with it? Yeah. Good times, good times."

"Nevertheless, we think you might be interested in hearing what we have to say."

"Not until I get my parents," Jazz insisted.

"You might wanna wait on that," K. said. "We've got a proposition for you." He glanced at Jazz before looking back at Danny. "Just you."

"Not interested." Danny turned and headed up the steps again, Jazz right behind him.

"This is about one Samantha Manson."

Danny spun around so fast, he almost knocked Jazz over. "What about her?"

O. smiled. "Why don't you sit in the car with us so we can talk."

"Danny, don't go with them!"

"I'm not stupid, Jazz!" He glared at the two men. "What have you done with Sam?"

K. barked out a laugh. "We haven't done anything. It's the Ghost Kid that's done something. And we need your help to stop him."

"What? What the hell are you talking about?"

"We'd be happy to explain. But only to you."

Danny clenched his fists, then turned to Jazz. "Go inside, Jazz. I need to find out what they're talking about."

"Danny—"

"Go inside."

Jazz looked past him to the Guys in White. "Oh, I'll go inside all right—to get Mom and Dad. Don't you move off this step, Danny. I mean it." And then she ran into the house.

Danny eyed the two government agents. "She'll be back with my parents in about two seconds, so make it quick."

"That's all we need." K. crossed his arms. "You and Ms. Manson are dating, correct?"

"Please tell me my parents' tax money doesn't go for you two clowns to keep up on the Casper High dating scene."

Ignoring the comment, O. took up where K. left off. "I'm guessing a certain video making its way around the internet was a rather unpleasant shock."

Danny crossed his arms, mirroring K.'s pose, but said nothing.

"We have reason to believe that Ms. Manson did not enter into that situation of her own free will."

Danny's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means we think the Ghost Kid is controlling her."

"What?" 

"It's called 'overshadowing,' when a ghost—"

"I know what overshadowing is!"

"We believe he's been using his ghost powers to control unsuspecting young girls and make them do… whatever he wants. Samantha Manson is only his latest victim. Your sister may have been one as well."

Danny's jaw dropped. "_What?_ Do you have any idea what you're saying?"

"We're saying your girlfriend is the innocent victim, and we need your help—"

"You need my help to set him up! So you can make him look like some kind of… of…_predator_!"

"We're trying to nail a Class A Ectoplasmic Entity with a scale seven spectrocity, who is under suspicion of felony sexual assault under section two-six-nine-dash-B of the Federal Anti-Ghost Code—"

"Get out."

O. raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

The door opened behind Danny, and his parents emerged with Jazz right behind them. His mother put her hands on his shoulders. "Would you gentlemen care to explain why you're questioning our son without our consent?"

"We weren't questioning—"

"Get. OUT!" Danny jerked out of his mother's grip. "I have nothing to say to you, with or without my parents present."

The two Guys in White exchanged glances. "We could come back with a warrant, take you—and your sister—in for questioning—"

"Get all the warrants you want. I have nothing to say to you. Not now, not ever."

"You heard my son," Jack said. "I think you'd better leave."

"If you say so, Fenton. Although… we are looking for civilians to test out the beta version of the Ecto-Annihilator forty-eight…"

Danny saw his dad's eyes lit up for a moment, until his mother barked, "Jack!"

He coughed, his gaze hardening again. "Get off my property, and stay away from my family."

O. gave a curt nod to K., then the two of them got back into their car and drove off. Danny brushed past his family and went into the house.

"Danny?" his mother asked, following him inside. "What did they want?"

"They're just fishing. Looking for ways to use this whole video mess to make Danny Phantom look bad so they can go after him—me."

"Why, what did they say?"

Danny clenched his jaw. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Danny—"

"I DON'T WANNA TALK ABOUT IT."

Everyone froze, and Danny's parents and sister exchanged uneasy glances. Danny let out a huff of air, his shoulders slumping. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be taking it out on you guys."

His mother sighed. "Danny, I know you're used to dealing with all this stuff on your own, but you don't have to do that anymore. Your father and I, we want to help you. But we can't if you don't open up to us. There's a reason these Guys in White wanted to talk to you without us, and that's because you're sixteen and they know they can twist things around any way they choose if you don't get an adult perspective. So don't let them do that. We need to know what they said to you, and why they mentioned questioning Jazz."

Danny looked at his sister. "It's nothing. I told you, they're just fishing."

"About what? Your identity? Do they know who you are?"

"No." He turned back to his mother. "But I almost think it would be better if they did. This whole thing would just go away if I admitted the truth and told everyone I'm half ghost."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Jazz's college and the town of Canterville do not exist—in real life or in canon. Crane College is named after Ichabod Crane from_The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_ by Irving Washington, and Canterville is named after _The Canterville Ghost_ by Oscar Wilde. It sounds like the sort of pretentious place Jazz would want to study. ;) 


	15. Chapter 15

**Fifteen**

**_Fenton Works_**  
_**Amity Park**_

Jazz gaped at Danny. "Are you nuts?"

He looked at his sister, his frustration overflowing out of him like a backed-up sewer. "Well, anything would be better than another day like today."

His mom's brow was creased with concern. "Do you really believe that? Or would it just give them more reason to go after you?"

"I don't know! But at least people would stop saying what they're saying about me, and about Sam. We didn't do anything wrong. I just… I need to talk to her."

"That's not a good idea, either." Jazz had that maternal tone that made him crazy. "You said everyone thinks you broke up over this."

"I don't care. I'll go invisible, and no one will even know. I just need to talk to her, and then I'll talk to you, okay? I—" The doorbell rang, and he let out a groan at the interruption. "Now what? I swear, if that's the Guys in White again, I'll—"

"I'll take care of it." His mother went to the door and pulled it open, and then her rigid posture relaxed immediately, and Danny heard a familiar female voice from outside.

"Hi, Mrs. Fenton. Is Danny home?"

"I got it, Mom." Danny brushed passed his mom and pulled the door open wider to let Valerie in. "What are you doing here, Val? I thought you were out house-hunting with your dad."

"Well, I kinda got sidetracked on an errand." Valerie glanced around the room before looking back at him. "Can you talk?"

"It's fine. They all know about the video."

She winced in sympathy, then handed him a folded up piece of paper. "It's from Sam."

Danny's eyes widened. "From Sam?"

"She called me, pretending she needed to borrow _The Scarlet Letter_ for English. When I got there, she gave me this to give to you."

Danny frowned, opening the note. He read it twice, growing more and more angry with each word. When he'd finished it the second time through, he crumpled it, squeezing it tightly in his fist.

"What's wrong, Danny?" Jazz asked.

"The Guys in White were at Sam's, too. They're trying to convince her parents to file some sort of formal complaint against Danny Phantom. And she thinks they're watching her house."

Valerie raised her eyebrows. "Formal complaint? For what?"

"Danny, what's going on?" his mother asked. "Does this have something to do with what they said to you?"

Danny threw the note across the room, the bile overflowing once more. "They think I overshadowed her! That I _made_ her…" He stopped, the thought too nauseating for him to continue.

His mother looked horrified. "What?"

"That's not possible, is it?" his dad asked.

"Jack!"

"NO! Not in the way they're thinking. I have to actually phase into the person. It's like wearing their skin, which kind of makes the whole thing pointless. Not to mention the fact that I would _never_—"

"Of course you wouldn't! We know that, sweetie." Maddie shook her head. "This just has to stop. I'll talk to the Mansons—"

"Mom, no. You'll just make it worse. Sam said she convinced them to leave it alone for now."

His mother put her hands on his shoulders, hunching down a little to be at eye-level with him. "This is a serious accusation they're making, Danny. We can't just ignore it and hope it will go away. If her parents aren't convinced that Sam wasn't forced into anything against her will—"

"And just how are we supposed to convince them? Tell them the truth? They'll be dialing the Guys in White so fast they'll burn a hole in their phone. It's exactly what they'd need to make sure I never see her again."

"I didn't say that. You're the one who was just talking about telling everyone the truth. Personally, I think telling everyone is a terrible idea. I… I'm not sure how I feel about telling Sam's parents in particular. Part of me thinks it isn't right to keep it from them, or from Tucker's parents, for that matter. But it really doesn't matter what I think, because it isn't my decision to make."

"She's right, son." Danny's dad slipped an arm around his wife's shoulders. "You've gotta decide for yourself who to tell, and when."

His mom nodded. "But right now, I'm more concerned about these accusations the Guys in White are making. There must be some way to assure Sam's parents that they have nothing to worry about."

"Sam must've told them something to get them to back off for now." Valerie said.

"Yeah, you're right. I need to know what she said."

"I can talk to her for you. Not tonight—she's grounded for pretty much ever. But at school first thing."

"She's grounded? For something that's not even her fault?" Danny pushed his hair back away from his face. "I—"

The doorbell rang again, and Valerie looked at the door. "That'll be my dad. He was waiting for me in the car."

Danny's mom opened the door. "Hello, Damon. Come in."

"Hi, Maddie. Jack." Mr. Gray nodded to Danny's parents in turn. He was a burly man, just slightly shorter than Danny's dad, with Valerie's blue-green eyes behind glasses that looked a little too much like Tucker's, and a bushy mustache that hid his upper lip from view. "How's the new Ops Center coming? Still having issues with the transformation interface?" Ever since Antarctica, Mr. Gray and Danny's parents had become pretty good friends. An IT engineer for Axion Labs, Mr. Gray had helped out with some of the Fenton Works anti-ghost technology during the Pariah Dark crisis. After much of the Ops Center had been destroyed along with the Fenton Jet in Antarctica, he'd offered occasional assistance on rebuilding that as well.

Jack shrugged. "There are some glitches I'm having trouble working out."

"You need a hand? Axion has some new hardware that might make things run a little smoother."

"Sure. If you wanna come by on Friday…"

"Why don't you and Valerie both come to dinner, Damon?" Danny's mom smiled. "Do you like pot roast?"

"That sounds fabulous, thank you." Mr. Gray looked at his daughter. "You about ready, Val? The realtor's waiting."

"Realtor? You looking for a new house, D-man?" Danny's dad asked.

Mr. Gray smiled. "Yes we are. Saw a few really nice ones over in Haddonfield Village."

"Oh, that's a lovely neighborhood." Maddie nodded her approval.

"Yeah, I think it'd be a great location. But the realtor is waiting, so we need to get going."

"In a minute, Daddy." Valerie put her hand on Danny's shoulder. "I wish I could do more to help."

"No, you've already been a huge help. Really. Especially how you hung with Sam today after… everything. I felt so bad just leaving her to deal with all the crap by herself. I owe you big time."

"And don't you forget it." She flashed him a broad grin, but it faded quickly into a more troubled expression. "Call me if there's anything else you need."

"I will. Thanks. And good luck on the house hunting."

The Grays left, and Danny turned away from the door. "I need to go talk to Sam."

"Danny, you can't!" Jazz stepped up to him and put a hand on his arm as if to restrain him. "If they're watching the house, they'll have infrared and ghost-detection equipment. That's exactly what they're hoping for, that if she's got something going with Danny Phantom, he'll eventually show up at her house."

"I can get by them. With my ice powers, I can keep my body temperature low enough that I don't give off any sort of heat signature. Infrared won't work."

"You still give off an ecto-signature, and they've got all kinds of devices to detect that."

"I don't care, Jazz! I need to talk to Sam! I need to _see_ her, and not just to find out what she said to her parents. I need to know… I need to make sure she's okay."

His father clapped a hand down on his shoulder. "Danny, why don't you come downstairs to the lab with me."

"Dad, I don't want—"

"I think you should go with your father." Danny's mom didn't sound mad or even… parental. Rather, she was giving his father a sort of cryptic smile.

Danny frowned, looking back and forth between them. "What?"

"Just come on down to the lab," his dad said. When Danny didn't budge, he added, "I'm not gonna tell you not to go over and see your little girlfriend. I just want to show you something first, okay?" And with a hand still on Danny's shoulder, Jack guided him through the kitchen and downstairs into the basement laboratory. The Fenton Portal at the far end of the room was closed, its massive yellow-and-black-striped metal doors locked in place. The Specter Speeder was parked in front of it, taking up a good chunk of space in the lab, but Danny's father didn't take him there. Instead, he went to his workbench across from the stairs.

"I've been working on something, Danny, and it's finally ready. I think it's just what you need right now." He held up a thick white belt with cobalt-blue lights all around.

Danny arched an eyebrow at his dad. "How is a Specter Deflector going to help me? They actually kinda hurt. Although the blue is a nice change."

"It's not a Specter Deflector. This baby's my newest invention—the Fenton Ecto-flage."

"The what?"

"Heads up!"

Out of nowhere, Jack produced a large boomerang and tossed it in Danny's direction. Danny barely had time to duck to keep it from hitting him in the head. When it reached the far end of the room by the Portal, it arced around came back for him, but this time he was ready. He reached up and grabbed it out of the air as it whizzed by, then glared at his father. "You know, I kinda had this idea that once you found out that I was Danny Phantom, you'd _stop trying to kill me_!"

"I'm not trying to kill you. I'm trying to make a point. You know the Boooo-merang is locked in on your ecto-signature." He wiggled his fingers on the word _Boooo-merang_.

Danny rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. And I've got a few permanent scars to prove it."

"Now put this on." He held up the Ecto-flage belt.

Danny gave it a skeptical once-over. "What's it do?"

"Put it on and see. But in your ghost form."

"Dad, I don't know…"

"Just try it!" His dad got that excited look, like a five-year-old standing just outside the main gates to Disneyland, and Danny rolled his eyes and relented.

Taking the device from his father, he transformed himself into ghost form, then snapped the belt around his waist. "Here goes…" He winced as he rotated the switch around the circular buckle, hoping it wouldn't electrocute him. It didn't. In fact, it didn't seem to do much of anything. "I don't think it's working."

Jack snatched the Boo-merang back from him. "Oh no?" And he tossed it again. Danny ducked, but this time it didn't come anywhere near him. It hit the back wall next to the Ghost Portal and clattered to the floor. Jack grinned. "See?"

"Uh… not really."

"The Fenton Ecto-flage camouflages ecto-energy. When you wear this belt, you don't give off any ecto-signature."

Danny frowned. "It blocks my powers?"

"Not your powers, no. Give 'em a try and see."

Danny went invisible, then intangible, then shot a small burst of ectoplasmic energy into the air. Everything seemed to be working fine, but the Boo-merang still lay inert on the floor. "What about things like the Ghost Shield or the Specter Deflector? Would those still affect me?"

"The Fenton Ecto-flage doesn't change your abilities or your physical makeup as a ghost, so you still can't pass through a Ghost Shield, and the Specter Deflector would still repel you. The Ecto-flage only masks the passive, ambient ecto-energy you give off. That way, you can't be 'seen' through any sort of ghost-detection devices. Now you can go see Sam without the Guys in White spotting you."

Danny's eyes widened. "Really? Wow, thanks, Dad." Then he cocked his head at his father. "But I don't get it. How will this help catch ghosts?"

"It won't. I didn't invent it to catch ghosts, Danny. I invented it… well, for just this sort of occasion."

"You invented it for me?"

"Of course! Who else?"

Danny blinked. "I… it's just… your inventions have come in pretty handy, but some of them can be, uh… kinda hazardous to my health. This is the first time you've invented something just _for_ me."

Jack looked a little embarrassed. "Of course I'd start inventing stuff for you now that I know the truth. Listen, son. I know your mother and I get a little… excited about ghost hunting. But you know nothing's more important to us than you and your sister. I don't care how many zippity-cool ghost-hunting weapons the Guys in White come up with. They still don't know diddly squat about ghosts compared to us Fentons, and there's no way I'm gonna let those bozos get the jump on my boy." He put a meaty hand on top of Danny's head and ruffled his hair.

"Dad!" Danny pulled out of his father's reach and swiped at his hair, trying to smooth it back into place. Then, he reached up and hugged father. "Thanks, Dad. That means a lot to me."

Jack squeezed him a moment, then let go and patted him on the back. "Now go on. Go see your girlfriend. But… no more of that funny business, mister, or your mother and I are gonna start chaperoning you on your dates."

Danny groaned. _I think I'd rather take my chances with the Guys in White. _


	16. Chapter 16

**Sixteen**

**_The Manson residence_**  
_**Amity Park**_

Danny spotted them just around the corner from the Mansons' house, their white van completely conspicuous in its non-descriptiveness. Flying overhead, invisible, his body temperature regulated with his ice powers, and the new Ecto-flage belt masking his ecto-signature, he didn't seem to be attracting their attention, but before he actually went into Sam's house, he wanted to be sure. He swooped down, flying a circle around the van, and then came halt in front of the windshield. He waved invisible arms a few times, put invisible hands into invisible ears and wagged invisible fingers while sticking out an invisible tongue, and then made a few other gestures his parents wouldn't approve of.

Nothing.

Grinning, he phased into the back of the van. _Lets see how _you_ like being spied on_.

The inside of the van would've made Tucker drool. High-tech video and audio monitors, along with scopes of every kind, lined the back of the van behind the driver's seat, opposite the rear sliding door. Before the panels of instruments sat Operatives O. and K. in plush leather swivel seats. Both of them were wearing headsets and watching the various scopes and monitors in front of them. Danny was glad to see that the only video surveillance seemed to be a camera pointed from the van towards the house; they didn't seem to have any cameras planted inside. He could see Sam's window in the shot, and a little bit of her room through the open red velvet drapes, but he couldn't see the bed or her desk or anywhere she might actually be, which was good news. He couldn't tell what they were listening to, however. He was thinking of overshadowing one of them so he could hear what was playing on the headsets, when K. pulled his off and threw it down in disgust. Danny could hear the song "All the King's Horses" blaring through them.

"If I have to listen to one more Dumpty Humpty song…"

"How many times can that kid listen to the same album?" O. agreed.

Danny smiled. When Sam was grounded, she almost always listened to her darker CDs, like Morbid Anti-Social Youth or Cryptic Graveyard. If she'd been playing Dumpty Humpty all night instead, it most likely meant that she was using the counter-surveillance program Tucker had installed on all of their computers several months ago, after they'd discovered that Vlad Masters had been spying on them. Dumpty Humpty was the one band all three of them could agree on, so Tucker had attached the audio-visual jamming program to their music. Sam could be plotting the overthrow of the government in there, and all these morons would hear would be the _Great Fall_ CD over and over again.

Danny phased back out of the van and flew up to Sam's window on the second floor. Despite the camera trained at her house, he was glad that she'd left her drapes pulled back. For as long as he'd had his ghost powers, they'd had a signal—if her drapes were open, he was welcome to come in. If they were closed, she wanted privacy. Still, he had to be careful, just in case he was wrong about the Dumpty Humpty CD. He phased into the room and saw her lying on her stomach on her bed reading something. The music was coming from her desktop computer, and a quick look at the screen assured him that it was indeed Tucker's program. The monitor displayed a list of all surveillance technology detected, including the camera and the listening device trained at the house. It also showed that the jamming was working, preventing the listening device from picking up anything other than the music tracks.

Satisfied that they were safe from government prying for the time being, he turned towards Sam. He paused, taking a moment to appreciate how she looked stretched out on the bed, her legs—bare of both her standard boots and purple tights—crossed at the ankle up in the air behind her. Her thighs curved nicely into a skirt that was riding up a little, and her back was arched as she propped herself up on her elbows, reading _The Scarlet Letter_. Danny found himself wishing he had a camera, although he was pretty sure the image would be burned into his memory. With something bordering on reluctance, he settled cross-legged onto the floor out of sight of the windows, then became visible. "Hey. Want some company?"

Startled, Sam gasped. Then, she gave him an admonishing look. She sat up and stretched, as if merely bored of her book—and it was 19th Century American Lit, so who wouldn't be?—then got up off the bed and slowly went over to the window and pulled the drapes closed. As soon as she'd done so, she sat beside him, her legs tucked under her. "Are you insane?" she whispered. "Didn't Valerie get my note to you?"

"Yeah, she gave me your note. The Guys in White came by my place, too."

"Then what the hell are you doing here?"

"I needed to see you. Don't worry, the jamming is working. They don't know I'm here."

"They've got ghost detection equipment! Your ecto-signature—"

"Got it covered." He pointed to the Ecto-flage belt around his waist.

"A Specter Deflector?"

"Nope. It's a new invention my dad just came up with. He calls it the Fenton Ecto-flage. It masks my ecto-signature. I tested it out before I came up here. Flew right into their 'super-secret' spy van, and they had no idea I was there. And my ice powers keep my body temperature the same as the air temperature, so they can't see me with infrared, either."

She leaned over and inspected the belt, then looked up at him. "Your dad made something that masks ecto energy?"

He nodded, grinning. "He made it just for me. For stuff like this. How cool is that?"

She smiled. "That's very cool." Then, she looked up toward the window. Keeping her voice even lower than before, she whispered, "How can we be sure the jamming is working?"

"Well, for one thing, they'd have busted in as soon as you said 'your ghost signature.' Besides, I paid them a little visit before I came up here. They said they'd been hearing that same Dumpty Humpty CD all night."

"There wasn't anything else _to_ hear."

"Okay, so lets give it another test. Start making noise. Sing, or talk out loud, or something. I'll pop down and make sure all they're hearing is the music."

She raised her eyebrows, skeptical, but he was up off the floor and through the wall before she could say anything more. He flew back down to the van to find O. and K. still listening to their headphones and looking bored out of their minds. _You boys wanna learn something about overshadowing? Why don't I give you a demonstration?_ He then hurtled himself into O., who was nearest.

It was a weird feeling, overshadowing someone. It started as this sensation of being holed up inside someone's head. Then he could see through O.'s eyes, hear through his ears, feel his arms, his fingers, the clothes on his back, the leather seat under his rear, the floor beneath his feet. He took a moment to flex O.'s fingers, then concentrated on the music coming through the headsets. The track "Put Me Back Together Again" was playing, and that was the only thing he could hear. He listened for a moment, then released O., flying out through the top of his head to hover above them.

O. looked around, confused. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"I… nothing." He shifted his shoulders and rolled his neck, and then went back to watching the monitors, which still registered nothing.

Danny phased through the roof of the van and flew back up into Sam's bedroom. She was sitting on the floor where he left her, singing along to the CD at the top of her lungs:

_You broke my heart  
When you said good-bye  
Who's gonna put me  
Back together again?_  
_Now we're apart  
And I still don't know why  
Who's gonna put me  
Back together again?_

She stopped singing when he became visible, her eyebrows raised in silent question.

"Couldn't hear anything but the CD." He settled down on the floor beside her and morphed into human form. "Too bad, though. You've got a nice voice."

A sheepish smile tugged at her lips. "Well, better than Tucker's, maybe."

"_Way_ better than Tucker's, not that that's saying much. But anyway, we're safe to talk."

"From the Guys in White. But what about my parents?"

"I doubt they'll hear anything over the music, either." He started to lean back against the wall, but crushed up against his backpack, which he'd forgotten he was wearing. He shrugged it off his shoulders, remembering why he'd brought it. "And I have something for you. An apology for getting us into this mess in the first place, and for you having to bear the brunt of it." He unzipped it and pulled out a pint of Mocha Almond Fudge non-dairy ice cream and a plastic spoon. "Who needs one of those deluxe freezer bags when you've got ice powers?"

She eyed him, and then the Mocha Almond Fudge, as if trying to decide whether to scold him some more or accept the bribe. The bribe won out, and she took the pint and spoon from him, then peeled off the lid and dug in. He pulled out a second pint, this one black cherry—and _real_ ice cream—and opened it up for himself.

"Mmmmm." She leaned back, enjoying her treat. "Still, you shouldn't have come."

Losing interest in the ice cream, he pushed it aside, uneaten, and leaned towards her to brush a few strands of sleek black hair away from her face. "I had to see you."

"Danny—"

He silenced her with a kiss. Her mouth was cold from the ice cream, and she tasted like coffee, chocolate, and whatever they used instead of cream to make this stuff, but somehow on her lips, even vegan ice cream tasted good. After a moment, however, she pulled away. "This is how we got into this mess in the first place."

He drew her back in again. "I… don't… care…"

* * *

**Author's Note:** Dumpty Humpty was made up by Butch and company. "Put Me Back Together Again" was made up by me (in case the bad lyrics weren't a dead giveaway.) 


	17. Chapter 17

**Seventeen**

_**The Manson Residence  
Amity Park**_

They were still kissing when "Put Me Back Together Again" ended, and they didn't stop in the silence between songs. As the next track started with an explosive guitar lick, Danny rested his forehead against Sam's. "Today was a really, really craptastic day, not being with you, and then on top of it, having to listen to everything everyone was saying and not be able to _do_ anything about it."

She pulled back again and gave him another scolding look. "You mean 'do anything about it' as in using your ice powers for more than keeping the Mocha Almond Fudge frozen?" She took another spoonful.

Danny leaned his head back against the wall. "I know, I know. Freezing Dash to his locker was a stupid move."

"Yeah, it was."

He looked at her again. "This is just so hard, Sam. It took us so long to _stop_ pretending—to ourselves, to each other, to everyone else—that we didn't feel something more than friendship. I don't wanna go back to pretending. I don't… I can't not be with you, not anymore."

"I hate this, too. But do you get how serious this just got? Its way beyond the kids at school thinking I'm cheating on you. The Guys in White tried to convince my parents you _overshadowed_ me. That you _forced_ me—"

"I know. They tried the same story on me."

"What?"

"I guess they figured as the jilted boyfriend, I'd be looking for some excuse to blame the 'other guy' instead of you."

She shook her head. "This is _bad_, Danny. They're trying to vilify you. If they can get rid of the hero image and make people afraid of you or hate you again, then they can go after you without worrying about a massive public outcry."

"I know. And what could be more hateful than using my ghost powers to force myself on someone." He closed his eyes, sickened by the thought.

"Those bastards. They make everything so much more complicated than it needs to be." She let out an explosive breath of air. "Listen, Danny. I… I have something for you, too." He opened his eyes to look at her as she pulled something small out of her skirt pocket and placed it in his hand.

His heart twisted in his chest when he realized what it was. His dad's class ring. "Why are you giving me this? Y-you're not breaking up with me for real, are you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid. Of course I'm not breaking up with you."

Relief flooded him, but it was followed by confusion. "Then why are you giving it to me?" He tried to hand it back to her. "I know you can't wear it while we're pretending we're not together, but keep it. Please."

She shook her head, refusing the ring. "No. I want you to have it until this is all over. It's… it's like before, in Antarctica. I gave it to you and made you promise to bring it back. I'm doing it again. Promise you'll give it back when this is all over."

He frowned. "I'm not going anywhere, Sam."

"I know. It's just…" She tucked her knees up under her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs. "This whole thing with the Guys in White… it scares me, okay? I don't like where they're going with this, and… and the last time, you kept your promise. You promised to bring the ring back, and you did. So promise me again, and I know it'll turn out okay."

He reached out and traced the back of his finger down her cheek. "You're not superstitious, Sam. And nothing's going to happen to me."

"It's not superstition. It's… symbolic. Humor me, okay?"

He nodded, and put the ring in his own pocket. "Okay. I promise to give it back when this is over. But seriously, you worry too much about the Idiots in White. I've handled them before, and I can handle them again."

"But this is different. They've even got my parents half-convinced you're some kind of predator. I won't let them do it, though." She put her hand on his leg. "If they go forward with this—either the Guys in White or my parents—then I'm going to fight back, _hard_. I already told them I'd go to the press and turn Danny Phantom and Sam Manson into the next big teen celebrity couple. That got 'em to back off pretty quick."

Danny's eyes widened. "You said _what_?"

"I threatened to turn this whole mess into something the public will eat up. Instead of vilifying you, they'll have made you more popular than ever."

"By what? Letting them think you're dating Danny Phantom?"

"I _am_ dating Danny Phantom."

"But _they_ don't know that." Then, he had an alarming thought. "Wait. They don't, do they? Tell me you didn't _tell_ your parents…"

"I didn't tell them who you are, if that's what you're thinking. No _way_ I'm going there. But I had to tell them you didn't make me do anything, that I was with you by choice, and all we did was kiss."

"Oh, _man_."

"Well, what was I supposed to do? I couldn't let them think you did anything to me against my will! And even so, they're not completely convinced. They don't know whether to think I've been sneaking around behind their backs, or that you really can control me like that. They backed off for now because they didn't want all the publicity I was threatening—and the Guys in White don't want it, either. Not like that, anyway. But if I don't figure out some way to prove to them beyond a shadow of a doubt that you didn't make me do anything I didn't want to do, then they will go forward with this whole creepy overshadowing accusation. And if they do that—"

"You want us to become this cute, high-profile celebrity couple? Even though you hate popularity and you hate cute?"

"It beats the hell out of the alternative. And as obnoxious as the whole celebrity aspect would be, at least we'd be together."

"No, you and Danny_Phantom_ would be together. Where would that leave you and_me_?" He indicated himself—in human form—with a wave of his hand. "At school, with your family, anywhere where I wasn't Danny Phantom, our friendship would be over. It's just… no. I can't do that."

Sam closed her eyes and shook her head. "I know, Danny. It's not a good option. I know that. I just… they were accusing you of doing the ghost-power equivalent of slipping me Rohypnol! And it gets worse. They implied something more might have happened than just what's in that clip. There is no way I was going to let them think that about you!"

Danny chewed on the inside of his lip. "If it comes to that, if the only way to fight the whole stupid accusation is to admit you've been seeing Danny Phantom, then we're gonna go the whole way. No more secret identity."

"Danny, no!"

"The whole point of keeping the secret was so that Danny Fenton can have a normal life. Well, I don't want a normal life if it doesn't include you."

"You won't have _any_ life. The Guys in White will see to that!"

"I'm not gonna let fear of them and the anti-ghost laws dictate my whole life. With things as they were, with Danny Phantom just the guy who fights the ghosts and occasionally saves the world, and Danny Fenton the guy who has a life, and friends, and you, I could live that lie. But what you're talking about? I'm not gonna live my life like that."

"No, you'll live your life locked in some super secret facility somewhere!"

"I've gotten away from them before, even with them knowing—"

"For _three days_, Danny. How long could we have really kept that up if you hadn't been able to use the Reality Gauntlet to make it so no one ever found out?"

"How long do you think I'd be able to keep up pretending that I never want to see you again because you screwed me over for someone else?"

"I know it's not a great option, Danny. I hate it, too."

"I'm not so sure."

The song ended and there was another moment of silence. Sam glared at Danny, her eyes narrowed to angry slits as she waited for the next song to begin. When it did, she lit into him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Your parents would be mortified, and all the public attention would push forward this whole pro-ghost agenda, with you proving you're so non-conformist you'd even date someone who isn't human. Don't tell me that doesn't have some appeal to you."

She gaped at him, her face turning red. "You can_not _be serious. There is no part of this that appeals to me!"

"So why did you tell your parents you really were with Danny Phantom? We still could've come up with a story. A spell from Ember. A fake-out make-out. Something. _Anything_."

"They were accusing you of _assaulting_ me, Danny! Maybe even _rape_. The only thing I could think of was to tell the truth, that nothing happened that I didn't want to happen!"

"Then why not tell the whole truth?"

"Oh, please! You don't want my parents to know the whole truth any more than I do!"

"Well, no. But I don't want to lose the entire four-and-a-half years of history you have with Danny Fenton, either!"

"And you think I do?"

"I think that maybe, at times, being the girlfriend of the Ghost Boy is a little more appealing than being the girlfriend of an 'average, everyday, not-special human.'"

She pushed the ice cream carton off her lap and stood up, glaring down at him with a look so fierce he almost wanted to phase through the floor to get out from under it. She took a moment before she spoke, and when she did, she was seething. "Don't you _dare_ twist my words, Danny Fenton! That is not what I meant, and you know it. I was talking about the choice you made—giving up your powers because it was an easy way out. I was _not_ saying I only like you for your powers. You know better than that! I'm not… I'm not Paulina, with the hero worship."

"No, you're not like Paulina," he agreed, standing up to face her, angry as well. "But you love stirring things up. You love things that are different, and people that are different. So long as I freak your parents out because I'm the crazy ghost hunters' kid, then we're good. But as soon as there's even a hint that maybe they don't think I'm such a freak after all, then…"

"Then what? I'd toss you aside for someone 'edgier?'" She made air quotes with her fingers.

"Of course not! I know you'd never do that, Sam. But given the choice between being with the 'normal' me and the me that would make your parents crazy and just might get people to thinking about how unfair the anti-ghost laws are, I just think that maybe the 'normal' me isn't gonna measure up."

"You cannot really—"

There was a knock on the door and Sam's mouth snapped shut for a moment, then she called out, "Go away! I wanna be alone!"

"It's _Bubbeh_, Sammy. Open the door. We need to talk."


	18. Chapter 18

**Eighteen**

**_The Manson residence_**  
_**Amity Park**_

Danny immediately went invisible. Had she heard them? Did she know he was there?

"Hold on, Grandma," Sam shouted at the door over the music. To Danny, she hissed, "You need to get out of here. But we are _so_ not finished with this."

"You'd better believe we're not. I'll try and figure out a way to talk to you at school tomorrow."

"Whatever. Just go!"

With a flash of white light, he transformed back into ghost form and phased out through the wall, slapping his palm twice against the window as he left to signal to her that he was gone.

He only got a few yards, however, when it hit him—the ice cream! He'd left it back in her room, along with his backpack. Sam would never have a pint of real ice cream in her room unless she'd had company, and if her grandma saw it… _Crud_. Gritting his teeth, he turned around. As he phased back into the room, he caught the end of Sam's grandmother saying something to her.

"…voices. And what was that flash of light?"

He stopped, waiting to hear Sam's explanation. "Flash of light? Oh, probably just car lights outside."

"And the voices?"

"Just Dumpty Humpty." She nodded her head toward her computer.

"Do you mind turning it down so we can talk?"

"Actually, we'd better leave it up, unless you want the feds listening in. The music has a jamming program attached to it.

"The feds?"

"They're parked down the street in a totally not-inconspicuous white van." Sam rolled her eyes.

Frowning, her grandmother steered herself around the bed toward the window. Danny had to dodge to get out of the way. And then, his heart sank. She was headed right towards where he'd left the ice cream on the floor by the wall where they'd been sitting.

"Grandma, don't look out there. I don't want them to know that I know they're listening."

"I just wanna take a peek." She pulled back the heavy red velvet curtain just enough to peek through for a moment, then dropped it and backed away in disgust. "This is outrageous! Spying on a sixteen-year-old girl! I should go out there and give them what-for!"

"Grandma, no. It would only make things worse."

Danny breathed a sigh of relief as Mrs. Manson backed up her scooter and steered it around Sam's bed toward her desk on the other side without noticing the ice cream. "And you have a program that keeps them from listening?" While she was looking at the computer, Danny managed to grab the pint of black cherry and turn it invisible. Now, he just had to find his backpack… There, by the bed.

"Tucker created it," Sam said.

"That boy is a genius. But why would he come up with such a thing? Do you usually have the feds spying on you?" She turned around to look at Sam, putting the backpack in her line of sight. Danny cursed silently and waited, hoping she'd get distracted again.

"Are you kidding? With the Fentons having a Ghost Portal in their basement, it's a wonder they haven't implanted chips in the brains of any of us who spend any time there. These guys are total fascists, Grandma! They don't care about privacy, or civil rights, or anything, so long as they can pass it off as 'protecting' people from ghosts."

"Mm-hmm." She gave Sam a rather piercing look over the top of her glasses. "And that brings me to what I wanted to talk to you about. What is your stake in all this? What exactly is going on with this Ghost Boy?"

"Nothing." Sam sat down on the bed with her back to Danny, conveniently putting herself between the backpack and her grandmother. With another silent sigh of relief, he crept towards it.

"Didn't look like nothing on that video."

Danny cringed. _Great. Even her _grandma_ saw us making out…_

"You saw it, too? Now my day is complete." Sam sounded as mortified as he felt.

"I saw it, but I don't believe it."

Danny laid his hand on the backpack and turned it invisible. Then, very slowly so as not to make any noise, he slipped the ice cream container inside and started to ease his arms into the straps.

Sam's tone turned defensive. "He would never do what they're accusing him of. He wasn't controlling me!"

"I didn't say he was. I don't believe that nonsense, either. But none of this makes any sense. I know you, _bubbeleh_, and you would never do something like that."

He'd just gotten the backpack on one shoulder and was trying to slip in his other arm when Sam exploded. "Why? Because he's a ghost? He's good enough to save the world and to honor with a bunch of statues, but when it comes to being with your granddaughter—"

"All right, Sammy. Let's cut the crap. You know I don't give a rat's tuchus about that. There's something else going on here, something you're hiding, and I want the truth."

Danny froze, the backpack dangling from one shoulder. What did she know?

"I'm not hiding anything!"

Her grandmother tilted her head, as if trying to puzzle her out. Her look was a little too discerning, and it made Danny extremely nervous. "It's almost as if… you're protecting him from something."

That hit way too close to home. Sam bristled, and Danny could tell by her posture that she was wary. "Why would I need to protect him? He didn't _do_ anything. He's not a criminal, he's a _hero_."

"And what about your Danny? He's not?"

Sam just looked away, her eyes downcast. Danny could see her profile now, and he could tell the question had hurt her. He knew he should leave now, that this was not a conversation he should be listening to, but he couldn't help himself. What did her grandmother mean by that? Did she know more than she was letting on?

But Mrs. Manson didn't elaborate. Instead, she sighed, shaking her head sadly. "Sometimes you are so much like your father—"

Danny winced at what he knew Sam would perceive as the lowest of insults. Sure enough, she snapped her head up. "_What_? I'm _nothing_ like my father!"

"You're more like him than you know. Oh, you have different tastes and different values, but you both expect the world to conform to your rigid and narrow definitions of perfection. With your dad, that means never straying outside the lines. With you, it means saving the world. What I'd hoped you would understand, Sammy, is that there are as many ways to save the world as there are people in it. Some keep asteroids from destroying the planet, yes. But some save the world one person at a time."

Danny edged around the bed so that he could see Sam's face. She looked like she couldn't decide whether to be curious or irate. "What are you getting at, Grandma?"

Her grandmother nudged the scooter closer to Sam's desk and picked up a skull-shaped candle that was sitting next to her computer. She turned it over in her hand as if considering it, then looked at Sam. "Unlike your parents, I know the difference between being interested in things that are dark and morbid and _being_ dark and morbid. I think for you, looking into the darkness brings you hope, because it's more real than the plastic smiles you get from your parents, and you're not afraid to face the darkness and fight for what's right. That's what I admire about you, _bubbeleh_."

She put the candle down and leaned on the scooter's handlebars. "But you didn't always see hope in the darkness. I remember when you first got into all this stuff in middle school. Part of it was rebelling against everything your parents wanted to force you to be, and against the country club friends who only cared if your daddy had as much money as their daddies. But when you pushed them all away, all this—" She swept her hand around the room. "It didn't completely fill the void, did it? The 'norms' thought you were a freak, and the goths weren't done deciding if you were a true baby bat, or just some poser mallgoth, or a spooky kid—"

Danny had to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud at her casual use of goth slang. Sam looked like her jaw was going to fall off the rest of her face. "How do you know all these terms?"

Mrs. Manson snorted. "What? Because I'm old, I couldn't possibly have browsed through the book stacks at Skulk and Lurk once or twice?"

"Okaaaay, Grandma, you're starting to freak me out a little."

Her grandmother smiled, but it was a sad, sober sort of smile. "And you were starting to freak _me_ out a little back then. Not because of the goth thing, but because you were so desperately unhappy."

Danny frowned. Desperately unhappy? He couldn't remember Sam ever having been unhappy. Sure, she'd often been called gloomy, but Danny knew that was only because people misunderstood her dry sense of humor. And it was true she tended to be more cynical than cheerful. But unhappy? It wasn't a word he would have ever ascribed to her.

He couldn't help but notice, however, that Sam failed to correct her grandmother. Mrs. Manson continued uninterrupted. "And I remember when that changed." She reached out to Sam's desk again, this time grabbing a framed photo. It was an old picture of Danny, Sam, and Tucker from back in the eighth grade. Sam was standing between the two boys, her arms slung over both their shoulders. Her grandmother smiled fondly at the photo. "You met them in seventh grade. A field trip, was it? Or some school event?"

Sam looked at the picture, a wistful look on her face. "Detention, actually," she said softly. "We all had detention together. And we'd already met. I just didn't ever really get to know them until then."

Danny smiled, too, remembering the five days of lunch detention he and Tucker had shared with Sam. When it had started, she'd just been the scary girl they'd seen around. By the end of the week, she'd become their friend. Within a month, the three of them were inseparable.

Mrs. Manson waved her hand at Sam's correction. "Details." She tapped the picture with a bony finger. "These boys didn't care if your daddy had more money than their daddies. And they didn't care if, or even why, you liked things that were dark and morbid. They took you as you were. This boy in particular—" She tapped the picture again, this time on Danny's face. "He made quite the impact on you."

Sam's wistful look turned more emotional, and she nodded. "He defended me to a teacher who was blaming me for something I didn't do. Got in trouble for it, too."

"He reached out to you, is what he did. And I will never forget that first time he invited you over to his house just to hang out. You didn't talk about it, or tell your folks what you had done there, or even who he was. They didn't find out until weeks later that his family owned that Fenton Works and made all those crazy inventions, and it was another couple of years before anyone knew about all this ghost business. But I remember that day as clearly as I remember my wedding day, because when you came home, you were _happy_. Not gleeful, like your parents, with all their ridiculous 'attitude of gratitude' nonsense, but… happy. Your parents, they might not have noticed the difference because the surface didn't change. You still wore black and liked things that were weird and spooky. But you changed on the inside, and I noticed."

Danny blinked. He had never heard this before. He looked to Sam for some sign that her grandmother was wildly overstating things, reading more into their early friendship than was really there, but the raw look in Sam's eyes told him it was true. Had she really been unhappy when they'd met? Had their friendship really made that much of a difference in her life? He knew the difference _she'd_ made in _his_ life—how she'd inspired him to want more than to just keep his head down and stay out of the way when someone was in trouble. And he knew that he'd changed everything for all of them when he'd gotten his ghost powers. But it never occurred to him that even before that, he might have already made a difference in her life, or that she might have ever needed someone to.

Suddenly the tangent she'd gone off on about his parents the night before took on a whole new meaning. _Being extreme acts as a good filter. It's easy to tell who judges everything on the surface, and who looks beneath. _How long had she been waiting for someone to just take the time to look beneath the surface? And how had he not known this about her? How had he missed it?

Her grandmother sighed. "You know, Sammy, I talked your parents into letting you go to Antarctica because I know how important it is for you to make a difference. But maybe that was a mistake. Changing the world on such a grand scale is something to be proud of, but not everyone can or even should be that kind of hero. And what I just can't understand is how you could put that above the person who changed_ your_ world. Don't you realize how special that boy is?"

Sam looked stricken by her words, and Danny had to bite down hard on his lip to keep from shouting out something to defend her, or to comfort her. Her grandmother was seeing it the way everyone else was, that Sam had betrayed him, and it killed him to know how wrong she was and to not say anything. And yet… she'd also managed to hit on something deeper, and he felt awful. Awful for the things he'd accused Sam of, and for thinking only of his own wounded ego and not getting how it was really affecting her. Awful for the things he hadn't known about her but should have. Awful for staying here and eavesdropping on a conversation he'd had no business hearing. It had been bad enough listening to the idiots at school mouth off, knowing that they didn't have a clue what they were talking about. But listening to her grandma—a person whose regard actually meant something to her—take her to task for something she hadn't done, and yet still manage to hit a nerve… It was almost too much.

Sam hung her head, not feigning embarrassment over the lie, like at school, but looking truly ashamed, and when she spoke, it was in a ragged whisper. "You're right, Grandma. I really screwed everything up."

_NO! _He wanted to stop it, to not let her take any more of the blame for something she didn't do, but he couldn't think of any way to do that without humiliating her further. Before he could do anything stupid, he phased back through the wall and flew away, his backpack still dangling from one shoulder as he put as much distance between himself and her house as he could. _Damn! Damn damn damn!_ He felt like a colossal jerk, and a coward, too. How could he let her take the brunt of this? And all the things he'd said to her earlier, completely ignoring what she was going through. How could he have been so selfish? He clenched his fists, furious with himself.

_Way to go, Fenton._

* * *

_Way to go, Manson._

Sam tried to swallow over the lump in her throat, but it wouldn't go away. How was it that while having all her facts completely wrong, her grandmother had managed to drive a knife right into the heart of the truth with a precision that would have impressed the most gifted surgeon?

Don't you realize how special that boy is? 

Yes, she did. And yet, she had actually once used the words _average, everyday, not-special human_ to describe him. To his _face_. And when he'd called her on it not half an hour ago, she'd _defended_ it. Sam hung her head, ashamed of the way she'd treated him. "You're right, Grandma. I really screwed everything up."

It took a moment before her grandmother spoke again, and when she did, her words were no longer accusatory, but rather, a challenge issued. "Then, what are you going to do to make it right?"

What _could_ she do? She couldn't stop protecting him. Her parents couldn't find out who he was, and she couldn't let them think he'd do anything to her against her will, but how could she make them believe her without Danny's human side getting trashed in the process? "I don't know. I—"

"Yes, you do know." Her grandmother's voice was stern, yet loving. "You know where you belong, and what you have to do, don't you?"

_You know where you belong…_

Sam jerked her head up. "I do know where I belong. And I know how to make it right." She got up off the bed and leaned over to embrace her grandmother. "Thank you, Grandma."


	19. Chapter 19

**Nineteen**

_**The Foley residence  
Amity Park**_

"Tucker! Danny's here to see you!"

Without taking his eyes off his computer monitor, Tucker called back down to his mother. "Send him up to my room!" Frowning, he clicked a few keys on the keyboard, watching the image on the screen carefully. Leaning back, he shook his head. "Man, this just doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't make sense?"

Tucker waved Danny over. "This video of you and Sam. Check it out."

"Oh, good. Reruns. Just what I needed to cap off this wonderful day." Danny shrugged off his backpack and flung it down on Tucker's bed near the desk, then collapsed beside it.

Tucker raised his eyebrows at his friend. "You okay, dude? You look even more miserable than when I last saw you, and considering the fact that you were on your way to detention with Lancer at the time, that's saying something."

Danny ran a hand through his hair. "I… ugh." He looked at Tucker. "Tuck, when we first got to know Sam… did she seem… unhappy to you?"

"We were in detention with a teacher that made Lancer look like a sweetheart. Of course she was unhappy."

"I don't mean that. I'm talking more in general."

Tucker shrugged. "I dunno. She took a lot of crap from the other kids. The teachers, too. But it never seemed to faze her. She was just, you know… Sam."

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too."

Tucker cocked his head. "Why? What's this about?"

"Nothing. Never mind." Danny shook his head, then leaned forward to look at the monitor on Tucker's desk. "Have you figured out who posted those videos yet?"

"Nope. Which is really weird when you think about it. If it were some paparazzi, they'd want their names all over it to get the credit. But every video is posted from a different account, and all of them are dead ends. No connection to each other, no connection to any known ISPs. Nothing. So that got me wondering. Why would someone do this, if not for the attention or to make a quick buck selling to the tabloids?"

Danny raised his eyebrows. "Because they have an ax to grind."

"Right. And there's something else really weird about this video." Tucker turned back to the computer and typed a command on the keyboard. The image of Danny and Sam on the screen changed, becoming darker and grainier. "This is the video as I downloaded it from the web. See how dark and pixelated it is?" He clicked the mouse on the play button, and it started moving. "And notice how it's all jerky like that?"

"Yeah. Looks like a bad home movie."

"Exactly. This is pretty consistent with how a typical consumer video camera would perform in low light and zoomed in really tight."

"Okay."

"Now check this out." Another command, and the image went back to how it had been when Danny walked in. "I ran it through some tools to clean up the image, and look what I got."

Danny winced. "Great. Now I can see how I look making out with a girl in high definition."

"That's just it. It's _too_ high definition. Look at the clarity. You were outside in the dark. Even with a full moon, which there wasn't, there's no way there'd be enough light to get this clean an image."

"But that's just you cleaning it up, right?"

"No. The darkness and the pixelation? That was all added. And so was the camera movement." Tucker clicked play again, and this time the image was rock steady. "And the sound has been messed with, too. The wind sound was dubbed on."

"Why would someone dub on white noise?"

"I'm not sure, but with the high quality of the video, I'm wondering if maybe the audio was really good, too, and it was dubbed over to cover the fact that it wasn't just a camcorder mic recording it."

Danny's stomach tightened into a knot. "You mean whoever recorded this might have actually picked up what we were saying?" What had they been talking about before they'd started kissing? How he was afraid of becoming like Vlad? Could that give away his identity? Sam had mentioned his parents…

"I don't know. But what I do know is that there's no way this was shot on a home video camera. We're talking major high tech."

Danny's eyes narrowed. "Like the Guys in White might have? Dammit! I knew they had something to do with this as soon as they showed up at my house—"

"Hold up. The Guys in White showed up at your house?"

"And Sam's, too. They're trying to convince Sam's parents I overshadowed her to _make_ her… do that." He waved his hand at the monitor. "And I guess they figured maybe as the jilted boyfriend, Danny Fenton would be on board."

Tucker's jaw dropped. "No way."

"Yes way. I'm guessing they didn't come by here, too, then? They're not watching your house, anyway. I checked up and down the whole block before I came in." He pounded his fist on his knee. "So they must've made the video, too. I swear, I'm gonna pound those guys—"

"I don't think they made the video, Danny."

Danny frowned. "You said it was high tech."

"Yeah. _Really_ high tech. Higher tech than the government would have, even. High tech like nothing I've ever seen before."

Danny raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean? It's just a stupid video. I mean, it looks cleaner now and everything—"

"It isn't just that. It looks like a shot from a movie, with perfect lighting. There's no way a normal camera, not even something really high end, could get a shot like this without some major lighting. I think you would've noticed if some studio lights had been shining on you."

"Doesn't the military have infrared or night vision cameras or something?"

"Well, yeah, but they don't shoot images like this. It'd either be black and white or, with infrared, it would look all green and weird. And look at that depth of field."

"That what?"

"How in focus everything is. Not just you guys, but the tree, and the hill, and the clouds behind you. Compare to the video from the website." He switched it back to the original image. "See how nothing in the foreground or background is in focus? When a camera is shooting in low light, it has to have a really wide aperture to collect as much light as possible. Like how the pupils of your eyes get really wide in the dark. But the wider the aperture, the more narrow the depth of field, meaning only a small area is in focus. Like this. But look at it without all the added grain and junk." Another tap on the keyboard, and they were back to the clean image. "The depth of field here is amazing. You can't get that in low light, no matter how high-end the camera. This is as clear as if it were shot on a sunny day in the desert."

"So, what are you saying? This shot is impossible?"

"Exactly. And there's more." Tucker minimized the window and brought up some still shots of the same hill in the daylight. "I went by there this afternoon after school. That hill is east of City Hall on the edge of an undeveloped area. On the west side of the hill, between there and City Hall, there are some buildings nearby, and I figured that's where the cameraperson must've shot from. I thought if I could match the camera angle, I could find the building it came from, and maybe we could use that to trace who did it."

Danny looked impressed. "That's a great idea, Tuck."

"Except look at these stills I took. These are from the west side of the hill, the side that faces downtown." He brought up the video image again. "But that's not the same angle. See how it's shooting kinda over your shoulder, with the tree on the right side of the screen? That's facing _north_, not east."

"So?"

"So, that means the camera would've had to have been on the _south_ side of the hill. But there's nothing there. There are some more buildings and a radio tower on another hill northeast of there, out towards the lake, but nothing at all on the south side, which means they would've had to have been on the hill itself, which would've put them downhill looking up at you, like this still I took." He indicated a still shot from a similar angle. "But the video was shot straight on. The only place to get this shot would be hovering in the air."

"Still sounds like the Guys in White to me. They've got jetpacks and equipment that can imitate ghost powers. They can go invisible and even intangible."

"How about silent? 'Cause to get this shot, they would've had to have been, like, ten feet away from you."

"Why? If they can shoot your backyard from a satellite in space, why couldn't they shoot this from far enough away that we wouldn't hear them?"

"They could, if they used a telephoto lens. But this wasn't shot with a telephoto lens."

"How can you tell?"

"It's kinda like the depth-of-field thing, but a little different. When you magnify something, you compress the distance between the foreground and background. So that tree would look bigger compared to you guys than it really is, and fuzzier because it would be more magnified. But look." He showed Danny the still he took from the same angle. His electric scooter was under the tree approximately where Danny and Sam had been sitting. "See how big the tree looks next to the scooter? How it's close but not totally on top of the scooter?"

"Yeah."

"It's the same in the video. If this were shot from far away enough that you wouldn't have heard the jets or rotors or whatever was keeping them in the air, it would have to be really magnified, and it would look like the tree was smashed up against you guys."

"Then what's your theory?"

Tucker eyed him a moment. "What if it was a ghost?"

Danny frowned. "My Ghost Sense would've gone off."

"Maybe you were too… distracted to notice?"

"No way. It's not just seeing my breath; I get a sort of cold feeling. The only way I wouldn't notice is if it's already really cold, and I'm seeing my breath anyway. Like that time Penelope Spectra kept her office freezing. But even that was ages ago, before I knew about the ice powers. I'm way more sensitive to that feeling now that I know it's a part of the whole 'cold central core' thing Frostbite taught me about. Unless…" He stopped, cocking his head. "When a ghost is overshadowing someone, I can't sense them. The human outside masks the ghost inside."

"Okay. So maybe a ghost overshadowed someone for cover."

"That's an awful lot of trouble to go to just to mess with me. And what about the technology? You said it was impossible? Where would a ghost—" Danny slapped his forehead. "Technus!"

Tucker nodded. "Exactly what I was thinking. He can make technology do things it shouldn't be able to do, like Valerie's suit."

"And he's definitely not above messing with my head. He used Valerie for that, too." Danny's eyes narrowed. "And Technus isn't human, which means I can totally wail on him without holding back. Wanna help me work out some anger, Tuck?"

Tucker grinned. "I'm in."

* * *

_**Technus's Cache  
The Ghost Zone**_

Although Technus was not one of the ghosts who, like Skulker or Frostbite, had a known domain in the Ghost Zone, he wasn't hard to find. One of Tucker's favorite toys in the Specter Speeder was a scanner that detected Real World items, and he used it to hone in on a huge collection of human technology that Technus had amassed and stored behind one of the purple doors floating around the Ghost Zone.

Tucker steered the Specter Speeder straight for the door in question, phasing right through it, and sure enough, they found Technus inside. The unexpected appearance of the Specter Speeder in his area of the Ghost Zone took him completely by surprise, and Danny used that to his advantage by phasing through the windshield and hurtling himself at the techno-ghost. A blast from Danny's ectoplasmic ray knocked Technus backwards, and then Danny was on top of him, grabbing him by that stupid cloak he'd taken to wearing.

"All right, cybercreep. You've got about five seconds to tell me why you're videotaping me and another ten seconds to tell me how you're going to fix it."

Technus got one arm free and fired a blue ray at some of the equipment scattered around him, pelting Danny from all sides. "What are you babbling about, child?"

Danny created an ectoplasmic shield to deflect the hailstorm of electronic devices, then went after Technus again. "I am in no mood for your stupid head games. I'm gonna tear you apart for messing with Sam and me!"

Technus blasted him with another blue ray, knocking him back into the Specter Speeder. Tucker jumped as Danny landed against the windshield, then called up the Speeder's Ecto Gun and fired at the green-faced, mulleted ghost. "I got your back, dude. Go get him!"

Danny recovered and flew at Technus again, firing more ectoplasmic rays, which Technus blocked with a shield of electronic equipment. "You come into my domain, attack me without provocation, and dare to accuse _me_ of messing with _you_?"

A blast of ice from Danny's eyes froze the technology Technus was using as a shield, breaking up the ghost-powered cohesion. The entire mass fell to the ground, shattering the ice and sending electronic components skittering across the floor in every direction. "You're the so-called 'Master of All Technology.' Who else but you could get a shot that's not _humanly_ possible?" He grabbed Technus by the cloak once more and pushed him back against the wall.

"As much as I appreciate that your recognition of my greatness, child, and I do enjoy any opportunity I might have to take a shot at you, I don't have the foggiest idea what you're talking about."

"Come on, mullet-head. Isn't this where you're supposed to shout out your plot so I can be impressed by your ghostly genius?"

"For the fourth time, I don't have a plot about which to shout, although you are free to be impressed by my ghostly genius at any time."

Danny jerked him forward, then slammed him back against the wall again, much harder this time. "I already told you once, I'm in no mood for your head games!"

Tucker grabbed a Fenton Thermos from underneath the console and opened the Speeder's hatch, then ran down to join Danny. "Ease up, okay? I got you covered." He pointed the Thermos at Technus.

"I'm not gonna ease up until this moron tells me why he did it!"

"Are you deaf? I didn't do anything!"

Tucker frowned, lowering the Thermos. "Danny, I think he's telling the truth."

"What are you talking about? You're the one who said only a ghost could've gotten that shot. Who else would have that kind of technology?"

"I don't know, but bashing his brains in isn't gonna help."

"He's a ghost! He doesn't have any brains!"

"Speak for yourself, child! I'm not the one who's letting his emotions do all the thinking for him… _again_."

Danny glared at him. "All right. Let's pretend for a moment I believe that you don't know what I'm talking about. Someone videotaped me and Sam using technology that is beyond what humans are capable of and then posted it on the internet."

"And this is a problem because?"

"Because I don't like my private life splashed all over the web, and you know damn well I'm still trying to maintain a secret identity in the Human World. Sam's supposed to be dating Danny _Fenton_, not Danny_ Phantom_."

"What makes you think I would do such a thing? Personally, I was always rooting for you and the little ghost hunter girl to get together."

Tucker flinched as Danny banged the ghost against the wall once more. "I didn't ask for your opinion, Dear Abby. Your little matchmaking session with me and Valerie is exactly why I think your ecto-prints are all over this. Besides which, there are only two ghosts in the Ghost Zone that like to use human technology—you and Skulker. But Skulker's a hunter. He uses gadgets to track, hunt, and capture—not to play head games. So that pretty much leaves you."

"This video of which you speak, didn't you just say it was beyond what humans are capable of? Why then would you look for ghosts who use _human_ technology? Perhaps you should be asking yourself, who uses _ghost_ technology to watch those in the human world?"

Tucker frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

But Danny's eyes widened as if he understood. "The Observants?"

"Bingo!"

Danny shook his head. "But they only _observe_ the human world. That's kind of why they're called the '_Observ_ants.' They don't post stuff on the web. You, on the other hand, took quite an interest in the internet a couple of years ago."

"I'm telling you, I had nothing to do with any video of you and your little girlfriend. Although now you've piqued my curiosity. Perhaps I should check it out next time I'm surfing the World Wide Web looking for new ideas to take over the world."

Tucker arched an eyebrow at Danny. "Want me to do the honors?"

"Be my guest. I'm done with this jerk." Danny jerked Technus forward, putting him between himself and Tucker, who aimed the Fenton Thermos. One flip of the switch, and Technus was sucked inside in a wash of blue light. Danny brushed off his hands, growling in irritation. "Well, that was a waste of time. Either he didn't do it, or he's gotten better at keeping his schemes to himself."

"Yeah, somehow I'm not thinking Technus suddenly learned to be discreet. But what about these Observants he mentioned? The whole 'observing' thing does sound pretty voyeuristic."

"Yeah, but posting on the internet? That's way too… _active_ for them. Frostbite said they put ghosts on trial who mess with the Human World, but they don't actually _act_ in our world itself. I think Technus was just trying to get me to go off on a wild goose chase."

"So where does that leave us?"

Danny grimaced. "Back at square one."

Tucker put a sympathetic hand on Danny's shoulder. "Well, tomorrow's another day."

"That's true. At least it can't be any worse than today was."


	20. Chapter 20

**Twenty**

**_Casper High School_**  
_**Amity Park**_

If there was one lesson Danny should have learned in his two years of fighting ghosts, it was that saying things couldn't get worse was invariably a cosmic invitation to prove that, in fact, they could. Day Two of the "SamPhan" video, as it was now being called, was decidedly worse. Not only was he enduring a continuation of the same taunting from yesterday, but the Guys in White had decided to stake out the school, making Casper High even more perilous than usual. Danny hadn't thought to bring his dad's new Fenton Ecto-flage belt, and although his human form was sufficient to mask his ecto-signature from the sort of broad scale scanners they were using, there was no way he could go ghost or use his powers without them catching him at it. This meant his plan of going invisible so he could talk to Sam wasn't going to work, and after the way they'd left things and what he'd overheard from her grandmother, it was eating away at him.

The hardest were the classes he and Sam shared, and there were two of them before lunch—second period Mythology and third period American History. Mythology was particularly difficult, not only because neither Tucker nor Valerie were there to distract them or offer moral support, but also because it was a class Sam had talked him into taking. He tried his best to avoid looking at her when she walked by on her way to a seat in the back, but even out of the corner of his eye, he could see how miserable she looked, and he couldn't help himself. He met her eye for just a moment before she looked quickly away, and he had to dig his nails into his palms to stop himself from getting up and going after her.

_It was just an act,_he told himself._ She doesn't really feel as guilty as she looks, not when she didn't do anything wrong._

History was a little better, if only because Tucker was there to distract him and Val was there to distract Sam, and then fourth period Danny and Val had Chemistry together. As they grabbed their protective goggles from the equipment closet for the lab work they'd be doing the second half of the period, she slipped a folded piece of paper into his hand. "Sam's got a plan."

Danny's eyes widened. "A plan?"

"Yep. She came up with it last night and told me about it this morning before school. And in my role as the duly-appointed go-between, I'll fill you and Tuck in at lunch."

"What kind of plan? Something to get us out of this whole stupid mess?"

"Well, I don't know about that, but if you guys play it just right, it should convince her parents that no one's controlling her, and without them, the you-know-who won't dare make any sort of public accusations. Then, we'd be back to just waiting for the Casper High gossip train to move onto something new, and you guys can 'make up.'"

"Well, that's better than nothing. What's the plan?"

But before she could answer, the bell rang, and they had to hurry to their seats. While Ms. Wissenschaft began her lecture on chemical bonding, Danny unfolded the note Valerie had given him and read it under the table.

_I'm really sorry. I know I don't always think before I say stuff. I hope you're not still mad. I do have an idea on how to make things better, at least as far as the problem with my folks is concerned. V. will fill you in._

So it hadn't been just an act; she _was_ feeling bad about last night. Damn. He folded the note back up as quietly as he could and slipped it into his notebook.

"Mr. Fenton!"

Danny froze. _Please don't let her have seen the note… please don't let her have seen the note..._

"Can you tell me the difference between ionic and covalent bonding?"

He would have sighed in relief, except that he had no idea what the answer was. "Uh…?"

Ms. Wissenschaft sighed. "Bonding between atoms occurs when electrons interact with each other. In ionic bonding, one atom transfers electrons to another, creating one positively charged ion, and one negatively charged ion, which are then attracted to each other and are bound together…"

Behind him, one of Dash Baxter's jock friends leaned forward. "Unless the negatively charged ion gets a way cooler offer, then she's so outta there. Right, Fenton?"

Danny ground his teeth and didn't answer.

* * *

"The plan is so simple, so _obvious_, I don't know why none of us thought of it sooner." Valerie grinned at Danny as she slid into the seat across from him and next to Tucker in the cafeteria. "You're about to get your ghost ass dumped."

Danny and Tucker exchanged confused glances before Danny looked back at Valerie. "Uh, meet the new plan, same as the old plan. We're already acting like we broke up. And I'm really pretty sick of it."

"You're not paying attention. I said, you're about to get your _ghost_ ass dumped. As in Sam tells Danny _Phantom_ that she made a terrible mistake, that she wants to be with Danny _Fenton_. And we're gonna make sure her parents are there to see the whole thing."

It took a moment for her words to sink in, and then a smile spread on Danny's face as he saw the implications. "And if Danny Phantom is heartbroken and tries to talk her into staying with him, but she walks away anyway, then that will show her parents that he's not controlling her."

"Exactly."

Tucker leaned his chin on his hand. "Okay, but how do they do this in front of her parents without it looking like the whole thing's staged?"

"By making them think Sam and Danny don't know they're there. Here's how it's gonna go down. Sam's gonna sneak out to meet Danny Phantom somewhere, like the park. But as her new best friend—the one whose dad used to belong to the Amity Country Club and is therefore 'normal' and above reproach—I will, naturally, be very concerned about her meeting up with a ghost. So concerned that I'm gonna rat her out. Her parents will show up at the park in time to see Sam giving the Ghost Boy his walking papers, and then Sam can apologize to Danny for her horrible mistake, he can forgive her, and all is well."

Danny drummed his fingers on the table beside his lunch tray. "You know, that just might work. But timing's gonna be tough. We'll need to know exactly when the Mansons arrive and make sure they don't interfere before Sam can dump me."

"The Fenton Phones," Tucker said. "Val and I can trail Sam's parents and tell you guys where they are with the Fenton Phones. And if it looks like they're gonna jump in, we can figure out a way to stop them."

"One problem." Danny looked from Tucker to Valerie. "The Guys in White are pretty much stalking Sam. You saw them here at school, right? They'll be staking out her house and will follow her if she sneaks out."

Tucker shrugged. "So? That might even be better. They could see Danny Phantom getting the brush-off, then maybe they'd give up this whole stupid plot."

"No. Those guys are way too trigger-happy. They're just as likely to come at me with ecto-weapons blazing, and not only would they ruin everything, Sam would be in the line of fire. I think we know from the whole Gregor incident that they don't care who gets in the way when they're going after me.

Valerie arched an eyebrow at him. "Gregor incident?"

"Don't ask." Danny stroked his chin, thinking. "If we're gonna do this, we need a distraction for the Guys in White first. Jazz might be able to help with that." Then, an idea struck him. "Oh man, I just thought of the perfect distraction, and of the ghost who can make it happen. He totally owes me, too."

"Maybe we should make a video of our own to put on the 'net," Tucker suggested.

"I dunno." Valerie wrinkled her nose. "If another SamPhan video shows up so soon after, it's gonna look staged. Just letting the first video die might be more realistic."

Danny grimaced at her. "Except for the 'SamPhan' thing—which you are so never going to say ever again, by the way—I think you're right. That and I'm not really crazy about starring in another internet video."

"But you've got that star quality." Tucker's eyes glinted—until Danny shoved his beret down over his face, knocking off his glasses.

"Okay." Valerie folded her hands together and rested her chin on them. "So should I tell Sam we're good to go?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah. Let's do it tonight."

"Can't. I've gotta work tonight, and Sam said her parents are having some therapist friend of theirs over for dinner and are making her talk to him afterwards."

"Oh, great." Danny slumped down, disgusted. "They're probably hoping he'll be able to un-brainwash her or something. Okay, so when can we do this? I wanna get this over with as soon as possible."

"We were thinking tomorrow night. Sam said it's also good because it's her grandma's 'Mah-Jongg' night." She made air quotes around the word _Mah-Jongg_. "She'd be more likely to catch on when Sam was trying to sneak out, so having her out of the way would be better."

Tucker cocked his head at her. "What's with the air quotes?"

Danny snorted. "Whenever Sam's grandma says she's going to play Mah-Jongg, she really means poker. She tells Sam's parents it's Mah-Jongg because they don't approve of gambling."

"She's like the coolest grandma _ever_," Tucker said.

Normally, Danny would readily agree, but the thought of the elder Mrs. Manson made him a little uncomfortable after last night.

"Anyway," Valerie continued, "between Sam's grandma being out, and my dad and I coming over to your house for dinner, tomorrow seemed like the perfect night."

"Oh yeah, tomorrow's Friday." Then, Danny slapped his forehead. "Oh man, that's right. Tomorrow's Friday. That's when I was supposed to get to go to dinner with Sam and her parents at the country club. Why did this have to happen just when I was finally making some progress with them?"

Tucker, his glasses and hat back in place, shook his head. "I'm telling you, dude. After Sam dumps the Ghost Kid for Danny Fenton, you're gonna be golden."

"Maybe." He looked around the cafeteria, but Sam was nowhere in sight. "Where is Sam, anyway?"

Valerie gave him an admonishing look. "You know you can't talk to her. Not at school."

"I know!" Then, he felt bad for barking at her; this was his fault, not hers. "I'm sorry, Val. I'm just…"

"Yeah, I know. Tomorrow it'll be better. After dinner, you and I can take off while our dads are geeking out over the Ops Center tech, and we'll start to fix it."

"Hold up. Your dad gets to mess with the Ops Center tech?" Tucker folded his arms, shooting Danny an accusatory look. "How come I never get invited to mess with the Ops Center tech?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "Because my dad's, like, in his forties and you're sixteen." He turned his attention back to Valerie. "I guess tomorrow will have to do. And in the meantime, can you give Sam a note for me?"

"Sure." She offered him a sympathetic smile, and he reached down for his backpack under his seat to look for the note he'd written during study hall. There was so much he wanted to say, but most of it should really be done in person, not in a stupid note, so he'd settled for something short:

_Of course I'm not mad. I'm the one who's sorry._

_I need to see you. I'll try and come by late tonight, or will find a way tomorrow at school. I'll make sure to bring the new toy my dad made for me._

"Here." He handed Valerie the note. "And tell her we're good for Friday, and that I'll make sure her two shadows stay off her back."

"You got it."

Tucker gave them a disgusted look. "Man, this is so old school. Texting is so much simpler."

"I think it's kinda romantic. I feel like the Nurse in _Romeo and Juliet_." Valerie flashed Danny a grin as she folded up the note and stuck it in her own backpack. "You always were the cheesy, romantic type."

"Why do girls think_ Romeo and Juliet_ is romantic?" Tucker made a face. "They both wind up dead."

"Because they were so in love, nothing else mattered anymore once they each thought the other was gone."

Danny shuddered. "Yeah, well, I'd kinda like to skip that part, if you don't mind."

* * *

While Danny and Tucker were at Danny's locker between Math and English, Valerie came by and slipped a folded up sheet of notebook paper into his hand before walking off without saying anything.

Tucker shook his head. "Old school."

Ignoring him, Danny opened it and read it before going to class.

_Don't come by tonight—company will be over late. And school is __too risky__, even with your dad's new toy. __PLEASE__ don't take any chances. After tomorrow, we can start getting everything back to normal._

Disgusted, he crumpled the note and tossed it into his locker before slamming the door shut. Stupid Guys in White. Stupid video. Stupid school gossip and stupid secret identity. Tomorrow night might as well have been months away. There was still English to get through, with Sam sitting on the other side of the room and everyone snickering over_ The Scarlet Letter_, and then there was a whole new day of school to get through tomorrow. All without talking to her. Without just sitting near her and knowing she was there. When was the last time he'd gone this long without talking to Sam? Probably the time she was mad at him for spying on her when she liked that Gregor phony. Most of the time when they fought, they'd make up within hours or, at the most, first thing the next day. If he couldn't talk to her or communicate with her any other way other than these stupid notes, that would be two full days without her. Forty-eight miserable hours.

"That good, huh?"

He looked at Tucker, then growled in frustration. "She doesn't want me to try coming by her house tonight and she doesn't want me to try to talk to her at school tomorrow. I can't call or e-mail or IM or text her because the Jerks in White are probably monitoring all that. And to make everything worse, the last time we did talk, we had an argument, her grandma interrupted before we could settle it, and then laid this major guilt trip on her. Except none of this is her fault!" Furious, he punctuated his complaint with a fist to his locker.

Sharp, biting laughter echoed in the hallway behind them. "What's the matter, Fenton? That locker making time with your girlfriend, too?"

_Great. Dash._ Danny clenched his fists, while Tucker put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"Not worth it, dude."

Grinding his teeth, Danny walked away without responding, but Dash and his goons followed behind. Kwan, always the most eager to please his leader, giggled. "Hey, you know who he's like? That guy in that book we're reading in English. You know, the creepy old guy who gets dumped by the babe who has to wear the red 'A'?"

"Yeah," Dash agreed. "What's-his-name? Chillingworth. 'Cept Fenton's too big a wuss to get revenge on Danny Phantom, so he's gotta take it out on his locker instead."

Danny stopped short and whirled around. "I'm impressed, Dash. I didn't think you'd be able to get far enough in to find out his name. I know even Qwik Notes sometimes uses big words with more than one syllable."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dash glared at Danny, his hands on his hips.

"I'd take the time to explain, but we don't wanna be late for Lancer's class, do we?"

Dash seemed to consider this a moment, then crossed his massive arms. "I owe you a rain check on one wailing, then. See you after school, Fen-toast."

Dash pushed past him, Kwan and his other disciples hot on his heels. Danny and Tucker waited a beat, then trudged behind at a slightly slower pace.

Tucker clapped him on the back. "Nice restraint. Sam would be proud."

"Yeah, well, I can't hack another detention with Lancer."

"Ya gotta admit, though, Dash managing a literary reference is pretty impressive."

Danny glared at Tucker. Truth be told, Dash had hit closer to home than he'd like to admit. He did feel like one of the characters in _The Scarlet Letter_, but not the protagonist's estranged husband, as Dash and everyone else assumed. Rather, he felt like the Reverend Dimmesdale, the adulteress's cowardly lover, who stood by and watched her take all the blame for their shared "crime." Danny hadn't yet finished the book, but he was pretty sure it wasn't going to end any more happily for Dimmesdale or his scarlet-letter-wearing Hester than it had for Romeo and Juliet.


	21. Chapter 21

**Twenty-one**

_**Eidolon Hill  
Amity Park**_

Two years ago, when Jazz first found out her brother was half ghost, it had been difficult for her to reconcile the strong, capable, white-haired, green-eyed, super-powered ghost with her little brother, who'd always seemed somewhat lost and in need of her guidance and protection. Long since then, however, she'd stopped seeing any difference between them. Black hair or white, blue eyes or green, playing video games with his friends or kicking the snot out of some ghoulish specter, he was always _Danny_. Her little brother.

Now, as she piloted the Specter Speeder over the urban-upscale Eidolon Hill neighborhood, the ghost sitting in the seat beside her was as familiar to her as her own face in the mirror. With his arms folded across a chest emblazoned with the stylized white _D_ with the _P_ in the negative space in the middle, and a scowl on his face that was so_ Danny_, it was hard to see anything but her little brother when she looked at him.

At least until he opened his mouth.

"I still don't see why I should put my neck on the line like this. I do have better things to do on a Friday night."

Jazz flinched at the sort of wheezy voice that reminded her of Vincent Price. Or maybe Peter Lorre without the subtle Austrian accent. Crossing her own arms in irritation, she glared at him. "Because you owe Danny after what you pulled last year, imitating him and almost getting him killed. By his own parents."

"It wasn't exactly a day at the beach for me, you know. Your parents' infernal machine took away my powers."

"Well, you destroyed my scrapbook! While pretending to be Danny." She still hadn't completely gotten over that one. "Although I don't know how I could have thought you were him. Isn't there something you can do about your voice?"

He smirked at her. A very Danny-esque smirk. "You mean like this?"

Jazz blinked. He now sounded exactly like Danny. Then he laughed, and the creepy voice was back. Definitely Peter Lorre now. "Not only can I change my appearance to any form I choose, I can also change my vocal chords. No worries. Your 'Boys in Ivory' will think I'm Danny Phantom."

"Guys in White."

"How bland." His scowl deepened. "Still. I already did the humans-attacking-me-with-ecto-weapons thing the last time I…_visited_ your family. It's not exactly my favorite pastime."

"Don't worry, Morphy—"

"That's Amorpho."

"Whatever. With your talent for pulling pranks and attracting attention, you should have no problem keeping the Guys in White busy for half an hour without letting them get close enough for the ecto weapons to be an issue. And as long as you get that tracking device on them, I won't be far behind."

They were nearing Mockingbird Lane, the street where Sam lived, so Jazz throttled back to slow the Speeder, and engaged its cloaking. While it rendered them invisible, it could do nothing to mask the sound of their engines, so she had to be careful to stay away from the van Danny had described to her. Sure enough, about half a block past the Mansons' elegant, red-brick colonial home, Jazz could see a white van parked on the opposite side of the street. She pointed it out to Amorpho. "See that van? That's them."

"And I'm supposed to just fly over, pretend I'm your brother, and get them to chase me?"

"That's right."

"With their guns."

Jazz rolled her eyes. "I told you—I'll be right behind you." She handed him a small electronic device that looked like a robotic insect. It was a device Vlad had used to spy on Danny, which Tucker had modified and synched with the scanners in the Speeder. "Just get this planted on one of them before you show yourself, and it'll be fine. This is what you do, right?"

"It's a little more… _active_ than I usually like." Then, he sighed. "Your brother did help me out even after I got him into a tight spot, though." He took the bug from her and then went invisible. "_Banzai_!"

For a moment, nothing happened, and Jazz worried that Amorpho had lost his nerve and bailed at the last minute. But then the door to the van opened and both Guys in White burst out. With a push of a button, jet pack suits slid into place around them, and one of them shouted, "We know you're there, Phantom! Turn yourself in and we'll go easy on you!"

Amorpho reappeared, and in Danny's voice, taunted them. "You guys want me, you're gonna have to catch me." Then he took off, streaking across the sky in a flash of white and gray.

"Operation White-Out is go!" And the two men blasted off after the doppelganger.

A red dot appeared on the scanner in front of Jazz, which was overlaid with a street map of Amity Park. It hovered for a moment over Mockingbird Lane, then shot off, heading east away from Eidolon Hill toward the lakefront. Smiling, she put the Specter Speeder into gear and took off, following the red dot on her scanner.

* * *

_**The Manson residence  
Amity Park**_

Valerie stood on the Mansons' front steps, trying to swallow her nervousness. Looking over her shoulder, she could see Tucker peeking out from around the corner of the house. He waved at her, and she waved back, then put her hand to the tiny, bug-like robot clipped to her top under her sweater. It was an ugly, horrible thing with a bug face that looked disturbingly like Vlad Plasmius, but it made for a good hidden microphone and tracking device. "Testing," she said quietly. "Can you hear me?"

Tucker held up his PDA, through which he was listening to and tracking her, and gave her a thumbs-up. In the dark between them, she could just make out the rope ladder Sam had deliberately left hanging from her bedroom window when she'd made her escape. She'd contacted them via the Fenton Phone Tucker had hooked to his left ear to let them know she'd successfully gotten out, and before that, Jazz had checked in to verify that the Guys in White had taken the bait and were no longer watching the house. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, but Valerie was still nervous. "Okay, then. Here goes nothing. Let's hope those drama classes I took in middle school paid off." Tucker gave her another thumbs up and flashed her an encouraging smile before ducking around the corner. Taking a deep breath, Valerie turned toward the door and reached out to ring the bell.

After a moment, the door opened and Sam's mother peered out from behind it. Valerie had often wondered why a family with so much money wouldn't have a whole staff of servants, but while the Mansons were uptight and rather moralistic, they weren't really pretentious. If they were, they'd live in Polter Heights, where all the billionaires who wanted to show off their money lived. Eidolon Hill was posh, but much more subtle, so it really was no surprise that instead of a snooty butler looking down his nose at Valerie from the doorway, Mrs. Manson herself was there with a look of polite inquiry. "Yes?"

Valerie pasted on her sweetest smile. "Hello, Mrs. Manson. I was wondering if Sam was home."

Now Sam's mother's eyes lit up in recognition. "You're Damon Gray's daughter, right? Valerie?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'm sorry, Valerie, but Sam is still grounded. She can't see any friends."

"Yeah, I know. I just needed to get that book back that she borrowed from me the other day. _The Scarlet Letter_?"

"Oh, yes, of course." Mrs. Manson opened the door wider. "Please come in. I'll go up and get your book from Sam."

Valerie stepped into the foyer and waited while Sam's mother went upstairs. She didn't have to wait long before she heard a cry of alarm. "Sam? Samantha?" She reappeared at the top of the stairs. "Jeremy! Come quick! Sam's gone!"

A blond head poked out from a door down the hall. "What?"

"Sam's gone! Her window is open, and there's a rope ladder hanging from it!"

Valerie gasped as loudly as she could without sounding too obvious. "I can't believe she actually—" And then she clamped a hand over her mouth.

Both of Sam's parents turned to stare at her. Reaching behind her, Valerie put a hand on the doorknob. "Well, I can see y'all are busy, so I'll be on my—"

"Stop right there, young lady!" Mrs. Manson shouted. "Do you know where Sam is?"

"N-no! She didn't tell me anything!" She let the words come out too quickly, like she was scrambling to cover.

Mr. Manson strode down the hall towards her. "If you know where our daughter is, you'd better tell us right this instant." His voice was high-pitched, but stern.

Valerie let her shoulders slump in defeat. "I… okay. She mentioned in school that she was gonna try and meet the Ghost Boy in Amity Park. But I told her I thought she was nuts, and then she said she was only joking, so I thought…"

"Where in Amity Park? Do you mean the actual park?"

"Mm-hm."

Mrs. Manson looked worried. "It's a big park, Jeremy."

"Do you know where in the park they were meeting?"

Valerie looked back and forth between them, hesitating. "I…"

"Valerie! Please!" Mrs. Manson's voice was even sterner than her husband's. "The Ghost Boy may be controlling her. If you know where she is…"

Valerie looked down to the floor. "I… I can take you there."

Mr. Manson was already headed towards the back door. "I'll just go bring the car around."

Valerie kept her head down so Mrs. Manson wouldn't see the smile she couldn't quite keep from curling onto her lips. _Gotcha_.

* * *

_**Observatory Summit  
The Ghost Zone**_

He walked through the empty High Council chamber on the main level of the extensive observatory complex where the Observants made their home. Or rather, used to make their home. Smiling, he took in the devastation around him. Most of the huge, floating, eyeball-shaped viewscreens the Observants used to monitor proceedings in the chamber had been cracked open or destroyed, although there were one or two that were still intact. The rows of benches that ringed the circular chamber were upended or burned to ash, there was a hole in the domed ceiling, and the telescope that used to point out into the Ghost Zone was gone.

Despite their far greater numbers, defeating the Observants had been even easier than defeating Clockwork and, as planned, he'd managed to keep the majority of the Observatory complex intact. The worst damage was here in the High Council chamber, where most of the battle had taken place the day before. The upper chambers and towers, built into the tall cliffs that made up the Observants' domain, were largely untouched. It should take him no time at all to have everything ready for his guests. Another day or two was all he needed.

Which reminded him—he really should check in on the boy and see how he was enjoying the limelight. _Celebrity's a bitch, eh, child?_

Grinning, he flew up through the hole in the ceiling and towards the peak of the highest cliff. A tall watchtower stood at the very top, overlooking the entire mountain. While the High Council chamber at the base of the mountain was the largest building and the heart of the complex, this tower served as the brain. From here, the Observants could control any of the dozens of telescopes and hundreds of viewscreens they used to watch the Human World. And now, it was all under his command.

In the center of the control room at the crest of the tower was a viewscreen different from the others in the complex. Unlike the organic, giant, disembodied eyeballs, this one was more mechanical and shaped like the cog of a huge clock. Despite their radically different appearances and abilities, the two systems were completely compatible. With a minimal amount of work, he'd been able to set it up so that this piece of equipment could feed into any of the monitors that still remained throughout the complex. But for now, he only needed the original. He waved his hand before Clockwork's viewscreen, and an image resolved itself…

He frowned. This wasn't what he'd requested, but Clockwork's devices were tricky things. Sometimes they showed you what you wanted to see, while other times they showed you what you needed to see. But why would he need to see this ghost, his little side project captured at Clockwork's Tower? He should be safely contained behind an impenetrable shield.

And then he saw why the screen was showing him this. Somehow, impossibly, his captive pushed out with his hands against the walls of the containment cell. They should have been impossible for him to touch, and clearly it caused him great agony to do so, but he forced himself to stick with it, using both ectoplasmic energy and brute strength to weaken the cell. After a moment, when it seemed as if he were just about to be overcome by the anti-ecto energy surrounding him, he managed to break himself free.

"No! That's not possible!" Slamming his fist into the side of Clockwork's screen, he barked out, "What time is this? Past, present, or future?"

The image froze, and captions appeared on the screen. _Past: 13:29 Minutes._ The clock clicked off the seconds: _13:30 Minutes… 13:31 Minutes…_

Cursing, he waved his hand at the viewscreen. "Show me Danny Phantom—present!" The image flickered and changed to show the child flying through Amity Park. He appeared on the screen as a white outline, which meant he was invisible. After a moment of watching the image on the screen, he recognized the area where the boy was—the park right near the high school. With another wave of his hand, he shut off Clockwork's device. His former captive would go after the child, that much was certain, and he could not let that happen. Fortunately, fourteen minutes was not an insurmountable lead, not while he had Clockwork's staff. While he had yet to harness all of its abilities, he had learned a few tricks, and it might be enough for him to get to the boy first. Maybe. It was sooner than he'd hoped—he hadn't finished making all the preparations. But if the other ghost got there first…

No. He would not let that happen. "The child is mine, do you hear me?" Or, at least, he would be very soon.


	22. Chapter 22

**Twenty-two**

_**Amity Park**_

Whenever Danny passed by the sign that marked the entrance to the Amity Park park, it struck him as kind of stupid to call it exactly the same thing as the whole town. Tonight, however, as he flew over, invisible and with the Fenton Ecto-flage around his waist and a Fenton Phone in his ear, the only thing he could think was, _Finally. I'll finally get to talk to Sam._

He headed for the place they'd planned, via Val, to meet—a fairly secluded clearing surrounded by a grove of trees. It was a perfect spot, because it would give them the privacy they were supposed to be seeking, while allowing Sam's parents a hidden vantage point behind nearby trees. It also, not coincidentally, was the site of his and Sam's very first kiss. Not their first _real_ kiss, which had happened in Antarctica but, rather, the "fake-out make-out" that Sam had used to hide Danny from Valerie when she'd first gotten her suit and started her vendetta against him.

And now, it was Valerie who was helping them with a completely different kind of fake-out. He could almost choke on the irony.

As he flew through the trees and into the clearing, he saw Sam sitting on the grass below him. She was hugging her knees to her chest, with her chin resting on top. He floated above her a moment, watching. Usually, she radiated strength and assertiveness. Now, she looked small and forlorn. Biting on his lip, he landed lightly behind her and, still invisible, leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Beware."

She didn't so much as flinch. "If that's the Box Ghost, you should know I have a Fenton Thermos and I'm not afraid to use it." She patted the backpack beside her for emphasis.

"I'll take that under advisement." He settled cross-legged on the grass beside her. "How'd dinner with your parents' therapist friend go last night?"

She scoffed, shifting position to stretch out her legs in front of her and lean back on her hands. "It was slightly less gruesome than a session with Penelope Spectra."

"That bad, huh?"

"It was no big deal. I told him it was just one of those things that happened, and it was a mistake that I felt terrible about because I was dating someone else, blah blah blah. He seemed to think it was normal teen stuff instead of anything sinister."

He grimaced, hating every instance where she had to let someone think she had betrayed him, that she was even capable of such a thing. But at least the shrink didn't think he'd been controlling her. "Well, that's something anyway."

She didn't respond, and he suddenly didn't know what to say to her. Two days he'd waited to talk to her, and now his mind had gone completely blank. He plucked at the grass at his side, rolling it between invisible fingers so that it looked like it was floating. "Nice spot," he said at last. "Brings back some interesting memories."

A wistful smile warmed up her face. "The fake-out make-out, when Valerie was chasing you that first time."

"Mm-hm. And now, a fake-out break-up."

"Doesn't have quite the same ring to it."

"No, it doesn't. I suppose we could call it a 'fake-_up_ break-up,' but—"

"Danny? Do I push you too much?"

The abrupt serious question stopped him short, and it took a few seconds for him to switch gears. "Pushing me is sorta what you do," he said quietly. When she closed her eyes and lowered her head, obviously pained by what she must have interpreted as an accusation, he put an invisible hand on her shoulder. "We already decided that's a good thing, remember?"

"Not if I push you into being something other than what you are, or make you do stuff you don't wanna do. All this—the powers, and the ghost fighting—you know you don't have to impress me, right?"

He snorted. "I do have a spine, you know. I don't fight ghosts to impress you, and you can't make me do anything I don't wanna do. If you could, I… I'd be eating soy products and haunting SUV lots."

This produced a sort of half-smile. "True."

"The ghost fighting was _my_ idea, remember? After the thing with the Lunch Lady that first time?"

"After _I_ changed the menu."

"Well, yeah. But it was Tucker who ratted you out."

"Also true."

"The thing is, Sam—you do push me into stuff, but it's the stuff I already want to do, or know I should be doing, but I've been too lazy or too scared or just too stupid to follow through on. That's what I was trying to say the other night. I need you for that, but not because I feel like I have to impress you or anything. It's more like… you encourage me to be the person I already want to be. Even the accident, going into the Portal that first time… I _wanted_ to try it. I _wanted_ to know what was on the other side."

"But you wouldn't have done it, not without me. We know that from when I wished we hadn't met."

"Yeah, but you know what else we know from that? Even knowing what would happen, I still wanted to go into that Portal. You came to me with this ridiculous story about ghost powers, and I wanted to believe it. I wanted to be the guy in the pictures you showed me, the one who could save the day."

She leaned her head back a moment, sighing, then turned to face him even though she couldn't see him. "That's just it, Danny. You were right about what I said to you when you lost your powers. Calling you an 'everyday, not-special human'—it was an awful thing to say, as if it were all about the powers, and being human somehow meant you couldn't be special. It isn't what I meant at all. I was just mad about what you did, because you just… you gave up. But saying you weren't special was mean, and it's not true. The powers and the ghost fighting are awesome. You know how much it means to me to be a part of that, and I will never, ever be sorry that it happened or that I had something to do with it. But the powers aren't what make you special, and they're not why _you_ mean so much to me, and I should never have made it sound like they were."

He let out a long, slow breath. "Sam, listen. The other night, when your grandma—"

A loud crackle in his Fenton Phone cut him off, and he reflexively put his hand to his ear. Sam did the same. She also had a Fenton Phone hooked over her left ear, but the microphone was pushed up out of the way so that the whole communication device was hidden under her hair. Danny ground his teeth in frustration. "—_interrupted_…"

Then, the crackle stopped, and Tucker's voice came through. "Hey, guys, you there?"

Danny toggled the tiny switch that enabled the talkback microphone. It was an effort to keep the irritation out of his voice. "We're here."

"You're gonna have company in about a minute. The Mansons just pulled into the parking lot. Valerie's gonna point them in your direction and hang back long enough to make sure they actually listen to Sam giving you the boot instead of just hauling her off back home, but I don't think you've got anything to worry about. You should've heard her on the ride over here. She did a great job convincing them that eavesdropping first was the best plan of action."

"Cool. We'll be ready for them." Danny thumbed off the talkback and looked over at Sam and groaned. "One of these days maybe we'll get to have a complete conversation without getting interrupted."

"I'm not holding my breath." She scrambled to her feet, pulling her backpack up with her and slipping her arms into the straps. "Showtime."

Danny floated up beside her. "Yeah. Who knew I'd be so looking forward to getting dumped?"

"Just don't overdo it, okay?"

"Who, me?"

She rolled her eyes. "I remember your performance as Bob Cratchit in the fifth grade production of _A Christmas Carol_. Melodrama much?"

"You didn't even know me in fifth grade."

"Believe me, I didn't have to be friends with you to have that fine piece of acting burned into my memory." She put the back of her hand to her forehead and affected a histrionic pose. "'Oh, my poor child! My Tiny Tim!'"

He folded his arms. "Everyone's a critic."

"Just go and make your not-overacted entrance."

He flew off a little ways into the distance before looping around to hover in the air above the park. After a moment, he heard a double click on the Fenton Phone—Tucker's signal that the Mansons were about to reach the clearing. He clicked back, then flipped up the microphone so that the Fenton Phone wouldn't be as noticeable, and turned off the Fenton Ecto-flage to make sure he would show up on any ghost scanners should the Guys in White make an appearance after all. Then he became visible and flew back to alight next to Sam once more. "I'm glad you could come," he told her, leaning forward to kiss her.

She pulled away out of his reach, crossing her arms in front of her as if uncomfortable. "Don't. I can't."

"Because of the video? I'm really sorry about that, Sam. I should've been more careful." That much wasn't acting, anyway. "But at least now everything's out in the open, and we don't have to pretend—"

"No. What happened was a mistake, okay? And it can never happen again."

"Why not? Because I'm a ghost?" That part had been Sam's insistence. If she was going to "dump" him in front of her parents, she wanted to make it perfectly clear it was not because there was anything wrong with him being a ghost.

"No, of course not. You know I think you're awesome, and a hero, and I'm really proud of the times I've been able to help you help people. But I can't be involved with you, not like this."

"Why not?"

"You know why not."

"Oh, come on! You're breaking up with me for _him_?"

"There's nothing _to_ break up, okay? I got caught up in the moment, and it was stupid, and I am never going to let it happen again."

"But I want to be with you!" That part wasn't acting, either. He let a little angst creep into his voice. "What about me? What about us? What will I do?"

She glared at him, mouthing the words _Tiny Tim_.

He cleared his throat, dialing it down a bit. "Come on, Sam. Why are you doing this?"

"Because…" Her gaze softened then, and there was something real in her eyes that made it hard for Danny to swallow. "I hurt someone I care about, and I feel awful about that. He's too important to me to not try and fix it, and I… I just hope he'll forgive me."

"Sam, don't…" he began, reaching out to put a hand on her arm, the lines from their little drama evaporating from his lips at her unscripted and very real remorse.

She shook him off and took a step back. "Just stop. I can't be with you, because I'm in love with Danny Fenton, okay?"

"You—" They both froze, their eyes locking as they simultaneously realized what she'd just said, which most definitely had not been part of the script. Danny's heart suddenly started pounding in his chest. "Wait. You're what?"

She looked completely stunned by her own words. "I… I…" Then, her paralysis broke, and she took another step back and started talking really fast, and a little too loud and high-pitched. "We can't see each other anymore and that's all there is to it. Gotta go now." And she turned on her heel and dashed off.

"Sam! Wait!" He started after her, but before he could take more than a few steps, something very hard and moving very fast slammed into his chest, sending him flying backwards. He crashed into a tree, his back slamming against the trunk with enough force to knock the air out of his lungs. Crumpling to the ground, he tried to look up to see what hit him, but his head was swimming from the impact. It felt like a ghost—well, it felt more like a semi, which usually meant a ghost—but why hadn't his Ghost Sense alerted him beforehand?

"Don't you hate it when your past comes back to bite you in the ass?"

Danny shook his head, trying to clear it, to focus in on the source of the new voice. It was deep and sardonic, and he'd heard it before somewhere...

"Or more accurately, don't you hate when your _future_ comes back to bite you in the ass?"

And then Danny saw the ghost. He blinked, trying to clear his head again and get his breath and his voice back. _It's not possible—he doesn't exist! He _can't_ exist! I made it so he'll _never_ exist…_ But he was right there, tall and muscular, with white, flaming hair, a blue-green-tinged face, and cold, glowing red eyes. And his black and white jumpsuit had the all-too-familiar stylized _DP_ logo.

It was his future—the dark version of it. The ghost he swore to his family and his friends he would never become.


	23. Chapter 23

**Twenty-three**

**_Amity Park_**

Sam's heart was thudding, and she berated herself for her stupidity and really phenomenally bad timing as she sprinted away from Danny, ignoring him as he called for her to wait. But the wind from something rushing past stopped her, and she turned in time to see a large, ghostly-white mass hurtle into Danny, slamming him into a tree with a sickening crunch.

"DANNY!" Like a switch going off in her brain, the message to the rest of her body changed from _flee_ to _protect_. In one motion, she shrugged off her backpack and reached into it as she started to run toward the tree and the ghost that was standing over Danny.

"SAMANTHA!"

_Oh, crap_. She'd forgotten her parents. Without breaking her stride, she called back over her shoulder, "Get down and stay out of sight! We'll take care of this!" Her hand grasped hold of the Fenton Thermos she'd brought with her, and she pulled it out, throwing aside the otherwise useless backpack. Why, oh why, wasn't she packing a Fenton Wrist Ray or even one of Mrs. Fenton's lipstick-shaped Fenton Utility Weapons?

The ghost must have heard her shouting, because he turned around and came at her. She started to bring the Fenton Thermos up to aim—then stopped in shock when she recognized who it was. _It can't be!_

"Sam Manson, alive after all." His voice was slick and oily and full of derisive amusement as he wagged his head in mock dismay. "Who knew the path not taken would lead to you? All the more reason to be glad I gave up my humanity."

That broke through her paralysis. Furious, she aimed the Thermos but, before she could activate it, he shot a blast of ecto-energy towards her, knocking the Thermos from her hands and charring it beyond recognition. The look on his face hardened from a wry smirk to a deadly scowl. "I've spent more than enough time in one of those, thank you very much." He took a menacing step toward her, and she scrambled backwards, her heart pounding in fear. She heard her mother scream again, which distracted him for a moment. Sam looked around her for something,_anything_ she could use as a weapon, as he turned his attention back on her, the smirk returning. "Are those your parents? Guess they were right about me being bad for you after all."

And then another blast of ecto-energy knocked him sideways, throwing him a good hundred yards away. "Get the hell away from her!" Danny zoomed up, hovering in the air beside her, looking angrier than Sam had ever seen him. "Sam, you gotta get your parents out of here!"

"Danny, how…?"

"I don't know." An angry howl from the future… _thing_—she couldn't bring herself to think of him as Danny—renewed Danny's urgency. _"Go!"_And then he was off, flying at the other ghost. The other _him_, who should no longer exist.

Sam had to force herself to turn away and race towards her parents instead. This was bad. The dark ghost was too powerful for Danny to handle on his own, and she had no weapons and her parents to protect. She didn't even wanna think about what a future, devoid-of-humanity version of Danny might want to do to them. They needed backup, immediately. _Where the hell are Tucker and Valerie?_

* * *

_**Outside the main gate of Amity Park**_

"Where to?" Tucker asked Valerie. She was standing behind him on his electric scooter, his extra helmet on her head and her arms wrapped around his waist. Tucker decided for the first time since he'd turned sixteen that he was glad he didn't have a car.

"Anywhere but the Nasty Burger," Valerie said. "I spend enough time there behind the counter."

"Ice cream at Elmer's?"

"You're on. But…" She sounded hesitant. "You're sure Danny and Sam won't need us to stick around and make sure everything goes all right with her parents?"

Tucker waved a dismissive hand as he put the scooter into gear and eased onto the street. "Nah. You made sure they saw what they needed to see, so our work here is done. Danny and Sam can handle anything else that comes up by themselves."

His Fenton Phone, still jammed in his ear, crackled. "Tucker! Valerie! Where are you? Now would be a really good time to jump in!"

"Or not," Tucker added. Sam's voice was brittle and tense. He pulled the scooter over to the side of the road and toggled the talkback switch. "Sam, we're here, just outside the park. What's wrong?"

"Danny's in trouble! That evil future version of him is back, and he's too strong for Danny to fight alone! I don't have any weapons, and he destroyed my only Thermos."

Tucker shook his head in disbelief. _"What?"_

"What's wrong?" Valerie asked. She didn't have a Fenton Phone and therefore couldn't hear Sam. Tucker held up a finger for her to wait.

"That evil future version of Danny is back," Sam repeated in his earpiece. "Please tell me you're packing!"

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know, just get back here! I've gotta get my parents out of here, and I don't have any weapons!"

"Hang tight, Sam. We're on our way." He flicked off the talkback and turned to Valerie. "Danny's in trouble. He's fighting a…" He wasn't sure how to even begin to explain this to her. "…a really nasty ghost."

In one fluid motion, Valerie had jumped off the scooter, yanked the helmet off her head, and did whatever it is she did to make her suit and jet sled appear out of nowhere. She motioned to him as she stepped onto the sled. "Come on, Tuck. It's my turn to give you a ride."

"On _that_? You've got to be kidding!"

"What? You're wearing a helmet."

"A _bike_ helmet!"

"Oh, don't be such a big baby. Danny needs us!" And before he could protest further, she'd grabbed him by the arm, yanking him off his feet and sweeping him behind her. He barely had time to wrap his arms around her waist before she jammed her foot down on her sled, and they rocketed away, leaving his scooter to clatter over on its side on the street behind them.

* * *

_**The lakefront district  
Amity Park**_

Jazz brought the Specter Speeder in a tight arc over the water as she followed behind the Guys in White on their mad chase after Amorpho. She decreased her speed, hanging back a bit as she followed them west back toward the shore. For all his complaining, she had to admit Amorpho was doing a great job. He seemed to know just what buttons to push to taunt the Guys and White and keep them on his tail without letting them get close enough to blast him with anything—not that they hadn't tried. Jazz had the trigger on the top of the steering yoke set to the jamming ray, just in case she needed to bail out the doppelganger, but she hadn't needed it so far.

A crackle sounded on the Fenton Phone she had clipped onto her ear. It was the first sound she'd heard since Tucker had let Danny and Sam know that Sam's parents had arrived at the park. This time, it was Sam's voice that came in over the earpiece. "Tucker! Valerie! Where are you? Now would be a really good time to jump in!"

Jazz frowned. Sam's voice was strained. That couldn't be good.

She heard Tucker respond, "Sam, we're here, just outside the park. What's wrong?"

"Danny's in trouble! That evil future version of him is back, and he's too strong for Danny to fight alone! I don't have any weapons and he destroyed my only Thermos."

"_What?" _Jazz shouted out loud even though she didn't have the talkback on. She gripped the steering yoke even as she heard Tucker cry out in the same incredulous tone.

"That evil future version of Danny is back," Sam repeated. "Please tell me you're packing!"

"That's impossible!" Jazz cried, once again almost echoing Tucker.

"I don't know, just get back here! I've gotta get my parents out of here, and I don't have any weapons!"

"Hang tight, Sam. We're on our way."

"And so am I," Jazz said, stepping on the accelerator. "Sorry, Amorpho. You're on your own." As she sped off toward the park, she pressed a button on the dashboard, a direct channel back to a radio in the Fenton Works Ops Center. "Dad, it's Jazz. Are you there?" When he didn't answer right away, she tried again. "Daddy? Please come in!"

"Jazzy-pants?" Her father's voice sounded confused. "Hey, wait a minute. This is the Specter Speeder radio. What are you doing with the Specter Speeder? Where are you?"

"I'm over the lakefront district, heading towards the park. Dad, Danny's in trouble. He's fighting a ghost, a really dangerous ghost, in the park. Tucker, Sam, and Valerie are with him, and I'm on my way there right now, but you and Mom should come, too."

"A ghost?" Now her dad sounded excited, and Jazz winced. She wasn't anxious to see this particular ghost again, nor to have her parents even find out about him, but she remembered how tough he was and didn't want to take any chances.

"A really dangerous ghost," she repeated. "Danny needs us!"

"We'll be there before you can say 'putrid protoplasm,' Princess!"

* * *

_**Fenton Works  
Amity Park**_

Maddie slipped off her hood and goggles, scratching her head in confusion. She was in the basement lab, examining the data from the analysis she'd done on the thermos full of ashes Danny and Sam had brought back from the Ghost Zone, but nothing made any sense. Danny had told her that everything he'd touched during their first visit to that time ghost's tower had shocked him, much like a Specter Deflector, but that on his second trip, the effect had worn off, and all that was left was the coating of soot they'd scraped into a Fenton Thermos. It was the same as the residue she'd found on the two medallions the kids had also brought back, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Its molecular structure was similar to ordinary volcanic rocks, but with a composition that didn't fit with any known samples of volcanic rock found on Earth. On a hunch, she'd looked up some data from NASA and found that the ash was similar in composition to the lunar rocks that had been collected during the various Apollo missions. But how would moon rocks end up in the Ghost Zone?

She didn't really think it was lunar material, however. The molecular structure of the ash was unstable, as if it hadn't always been solid like it was now, but rather with properties more similar to a volatile gas. She couldn't imagine how that could be. If only she'd managed to get a sample while it was still active so she could analyze its anti-ecto properties and compare it to the power source used in the Fenton Ghost Shield or the Specter Deflectors.

She frowned, a sudden flash of déjà-vu niggling at the back of her mind. Hadn't she had that same wish once before, to get a hold of… what was it? Something that reminded her of the Specter Deflector. Something she'd wished she could analyze, but she couldn't remember what it was. Something—

A thunder of footsteps pounded overhead, and then Jack appeared in the stairway, taking the steps two at a time. Damon was right behind him.

"Jack! You sound like a herd of elephants tramping down those stairs! What's—"

"Saddle up, sweetcakes," Jack cut her off, dashing for the weapons vault. He punched in the code on the keypad, and the door swung open.

"What's wrong?"

"Our boy needs our help. He's fighting some spectral scum in Amity Park. The other kids are with him, and Jazz is on her way there, too."

"What?"

Jack pulled out a Fenton Bazooka, the Jack o' Nine Tails, the Ghost Weasel, and a few smaller weapons and tossed them in Maddie's direction. "Jazz has the Specter Speeder, so we'll have to take the Fenton RV."

"Hey, my Valerie is out there, too. How 'bout giving me one of those things?" Damon asked.

"I dunno, Damon. There's a lot of power in these babies. How's your aim?"

"I was a sharpshooter in the Marines."

"Not _too_ bad, but—"

"Jack, for goodness sake, give the man a bazooka," Maddie said. "He's probably a better shot than you are!"

"Hey!"

"We've had this discussion before, sweetie. You're the expert at making the weapons…"

"And you're the expert at shooting them." He sighed, his lip curling into a pout. "I know." He handed Damon a Fenton Bazooka.

Damon slung the large gun over his shoulder. "Are we gonna stand here flapping our jaws, or are we gonna go save our kids?"

"I'll get the RV!" Jack shouted.


	24. Chapter 24

**Twenty-four**

**_Amity Park_**

The future Phantom flew at Danny again, but this time, he was ready. He split into two, and his future self passed harmlessly between them. Sliding to a halt, he spun around to face Danny. "You've learned a few tricks since the last time we met."

"More than you know." The duplicate Dannys merged back into one, and he blasted the evil Phantom with his ice powers. A look of surprise was frozen on the dark ghost's face.

It only took a moment, however, before he radiated enough ecto-energy to blast through the ice. "Ice powers? When did we ever have ice powers?"

"There's a lot about our powers you never bothered to learn because you were too busy trying to push everyone else around."

The dark Phantom howled in bitter laughter. "You think after a mere two years, you're better than me? I had _ten_ years to get where I am." He blasted Danny with ecto-energy so fast and powerful, Danny could neither dodge nor go intangible in time. It hit him full in the chest, knocking him onto his back. Phantom flew over to him. "You still have a lot to learn, _child_."

A pink beam of energy came from behind Danny, hurtling his future self out of the clearing and into a park bench several hundred yards away. Danny jumped to his feet as a whine of turbines announced the arrival of Valerie… and Tucker? Valerie's sled glided to a halt, hovering above Danny, and Tucker rolled off, looking a little green.

"The cavalry… has… arrived," Tucker panted.

Then Phantom was back. "Tucker! You survived too?" He raised an eyebrow at Danny. "I don't know how you did it, but I'm impressed. And _Valerie_!" An oily smile slid onto his face. "Now there's _my_ girl, even if you are about a decade short on experience. New suit, though?"

"Do I know you?" Valerie blinked behind her helmet as three boxes appeared over her shoulders and head. "Oh, wait. I don't care!" Each of the three boxes shot out another pink beam of energy, and Tucker pulled out an ecto gun of his own, blasting at him as well. Phantom turned into a cloud of glowing green energy before going fully intangible, then invisible.

"Where'd he go?" Tucker cried.

"I—" Danny saw him reappear behind them just in time. "Valerie!" He shoved her off her sled and out of the way just before Phantom could nail her with an ecto ray. Then, Danny whipped around and flew into him so fast, Phantom couldn't dodge. "Listen to me, you son of a bitch. You stay away from her, too. Got it?"

"My, my, such language." His future self grinned underneath him. "And when you think about it, isn't that really more of a comment about Mom?"

Danny smashed his fist into his older self's face. "Don't you call her that! She's not your mother. Her son is _human_. The half you gave up, remember?"

"Which is why I'm the better _ghost_." With a mighty shove, he pushed Danny off of him, flinging him backwards to land near Valerie just as she was getting to her feet.

"Who the heck is that?" she asked as she recalled her sled. "And why does he look kinda like you and have your _D_ thingy on his chest?"

"Evil future version of me from an alternate timeline." Danny pulled himself to his feet again just as Tucker took another shot at their foe.

Valerie cocked her head at him. "The who and the what now?"

Phantom avoided Tucker's assault and was coming in their direction again. Danny readied himself as he shouted at Valerie, "Evil ghost! Shoot now, ask questions later!"

* * *

Sam allowed her parents to drag her by the arm all the way back to the parking lot. They stopped to catch their breath when they reached her father's Bentley. 

"That thing almost killed you!" Her mother looked halfway between frantic and furious. "Do you understand now? Ghosts are dangerous!"

"_You_ need to understand. _Some_ ghosts are dangerous. That's why we need ghosts like Danny Phantom."

"No, that's why we need trained forces, like those Guys in White!"

"Are you kidding me?" Sam threw her hands up in disgust. "They're just as bad as the ghosts! They don't differentiate between the evil ones like that jerk who attacked us, and the good ones who help us. How is destroying all ghosts or trying to control them any better than the ghosts trying to control us or take over our world?"

Sam's father pulled open the door to the Bentley. "This is not the time for a debate, young lady. Not to mention the fact that you're in even bigger trouble than you already were for sneaking out when you were grounded. Now get in the car—"

A roar of jet engines cut him off, and the Specter Speeder shot into the parking lot, coming to a rough stop in one of the parking spaces. The hatch opened, and Jazz jumped out. "Sam! Where's Danny… _Phantom_?" she added, catching sight of Sam's parents.

Sam pointed in the direction of the clearing. "He's in the park fighting…"

"I know. I heard on the Fenton Phones." Jazz ducked back into the Speeder, then reemerged with a Fenton Bazooka and a Wrist Ray. "Need some gear?" She tossed the Wrist Ray to Sam.

"Awesome! I love these Wrist Rays!" She slipped it onto her right arm.

"Let's go!" Jazz took off at a dead run toward the clearing.

"Right behind you!"

"Now wait just one minute!" Her father grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To help my friends!"

Her mother shook her head. "You are not getting involved, young lady. Leave this to the experts."

"I _am_ one of the experts." She shook her arm out of her father's grasp. "This is what I do. And I'm not gonna turn my back on my friends when they need me."

"Your _friends_?" Her dad crossed his arms, his lip curling into a sneer. "You mean that Ghost Boy? The one you just said you can't see anymore?"

"You don't understand! That ghost will…" She swallowed. "I have to go help him." And before he could stop her again, she darted off after Jazz.

* * *

Pamela Manson looked at her husband, fighting back the rising panic. "Jeremy, we have to stop her! She's going to get herself killed!"

"I know!" He looked as panicked and angry as she felt. "But we can't go charging in after a ghost. We'll get _all _of us killed."

Pam looked around wildly, trying to figure out what to do. They could call those Guys in White—she still had their card. But by the time they could get here, Sam could already be— She choked back on that thought, unwilling to even let it enter her brain. No. They had to do something _now_. They had to find— "Jeremy! Look!"

Her husband followed her gaze to the strange, boxy-looking vehicle thing that the Fenton girl had arrived in. "The Fenton's… whatchamacallit."

"She left in such a hurry, she left the hatch wide open. I'll bet there are some weapons in there."

Jeremy raised an eyebrow at her. "You want to take _ghost weapons_ from the_ Fentons_?"

"Our baby needs us!"

"Good point." Together, they climbed into the hatch of the weird vehicle. In the back, there was a chest that Jazz Fenton had left open. "This looks like a gun." Jeremy pulled out a squat, white metal thing that reminded her of those super-soaker water guns she'd seen kids play with in the summertime.

Pam picked up something that looked like a whip with several different tendrils hanging off of it. In the middle was a picture of Jack Fenton's face. She dropped the thing in disgust. "I don't _even_ want to know what _that_ is."

Jeremy handed her the gun he'd found so he could pick through the chest some more. "I'm not sure all of this stuff is even weapons." He handed her a lipstick. "Makeup, and look." He held up a couple of white and green thermoses.

"Well, you know that Jack Fenton. It stands to reason he'd have a stash of food lying around somewhere." She opened up the tube of lipstick, and wrinkled her nose when she saw it was bright green. "Ugh. Look at this obnoxious color. Who would put this on their _lips_? Not even Maddie Fenton has taste this bad. And neither does her daughter." She sighed as a thought hit her. "But ours does. I'll bet it's Sam's. She just loves looking like death warmed over." She pocketed the lipstick, then grimaced as she looked at the disorganized clutter. "We'll never make sense of any of this junk."

Jeremy put the thermoses down and pulled something else out of the chest. It looked similar to, but smaller than, the weapon he'd handed her. "This one looks like another gun. And we weren't the Amity Country Club Skeet Shooting Champions three years running for nothing." He hoisted the weapon over his shoulder. "Now, let's go protect our little girl from those ghosts!"

* * *

Danny was diving in for another try at his future self with his ice powers when a tendril of ecto energy wrapped around him like a rope, squeezing his arms to his side and immobilizing him. Phantom held onto the other end of the energy coil, jerking Danny toward him like a cowboy who'd lassoed a steer. "We need to have a little talk." 

"I don't think so, spook!" Valerie whizzed at him from behind, while Tucker came at him from the side but, with a wave of Phantom's hand, they were both immobilized in glowing fields of green energy.

"Mm, mm, mm." Phantom clucked his tongue and leaned toward Valerie, a leering grin on his face. "Looking good in the new suit, Valerie. Black is definitely your color. But we don't have time to play right now."

Even through the ecto-field and her helmet, Danny could see the look of disgust on her face. "Ew! Are you _hitting_ on me?"

"You'd better leave her alone!" Tucker shouted from inside his own energy field.

Phantom laughed. "Or what?"

Danny had heard enough. He let loose with a blast of his ice powers, freezing the energy coil around him. Then, pushing outward with his arms, he shattered it and, before his future self could blink, Danny was on top of him, knocking him to the ground. "Or I pound you into oblivion, you slimy sack of garbage!"

Phantom recovered from his surprise to laugh again. "And here I thought after that sweet little moment with Sam, you weren't interested in Valerie anymore."

"I don't have to be interested in her to want to keep dirtbags like you away from her. You stay away from her. You stay away from Sam. You stay away from Tucker, and you stay away from my family."

"You mean _our_ family."

"I mean _my_ family!" Danny pulled back so he could get enough room to shoot his other self with his ectoplasmic ray, but Phantom was just as fast, and the two beams of energy met in the middle, blasting Phantom backwards along the ground, creating a furrow in the earth, while Danny was thrown up and into another tree.

Phantom was on his feet first, and he flew up and grabbed a fistful of Danny's jumpsuit, pulling him out of the tree. "You wanna protect _our_ family, then I suggest you listen. Believe it or not, I didn't come here to fight you."

"Yeah, I could tell by the way you _came out of nowhere and attacked me_!"

Phantom smirked at him. "Well, you can't really blame me for wanting a little revenge, can you? Two years stuck in one of Dad's Thermoses is a long time."

Danny frowned. "Dad's Thermos? What the hell are you talking about? You shouldn't even _exist_! I changed things so that I would _never_ become you!"

"And yet, here I am. The time stream isn't as simple as you think, Danny. It doesn't just flow from past to present to future in one clear path."

Danny thought again of Clockwork's claim that he saw time from "above."_ All the twists and turns it might—or might not—take._ "What's your point?"

"It took me a long time to figure out how it was possible that you could have changed our past without changing my existence, but I finally realized why. When you change the past, you can only affect where the time stream flows from that point forward. And I wasn't _in_ the time stream. I was wearing one of Clockwork's medallions and was in the past. _My_ past, anyway. Your present."

A thought occurred to Danny. When he'd gone back in time to try and prevent the accident that had given Vlad his ghost powers, he'd accidentally caused his dad to get those powers instead. When Danny had returned to the present—the new present he'd created—his mom had married Vlad instead of his dad, and he and Jazz had never been born. Yet… he'd still existed. Not as someone a part of that time, but an anomaly from his own alternative time. Rather than disappearing like Michael J. Fox in _Back to the Future_, he'd remained as a separate entity outside of time. He looked at his future self, the one that he'd never let come to be. "You exist outside of time."

"Apparently." Still clutching Danny by the jumpsuit, Phantom pulled him closer so that his face was right in Danny's. "And I've spent the last two years of that existence in the last place _you_ left me. Remember?"

Danny's eyes widened. "The Fenton Thermos! I captured you in a Thermos, but when Clockwork stopped time to keep the Nasty Burger from blowing up, the Thermos was gone. I figured it was because you no longer existed, but Clockwork must've had it." And then the final piece fell into place. "The Thermos fragment we found at Clockwork's Tower! That was you! _You_ destroyed the Tower!"

"You're half right."

Danny growled in anger. "What did you do to Clockwork?"

"Wrong half. I—"

A green blast hit Phantom in the shoulder, wrenching him away from Danny, and sending him beyond the trees to the other side of the park. Danny looked in the direction from which the blast had come, and saw Jazz kneeling in the grass, a Fenton Bazooka over her shoulder. "Nobody messes with my little brother!"


	25. Chapter 25

**Twenty-five**

**_Amity Park_**

"Jazz!" Danny grinned. "Nice timing."

Jazz raised the bazooka and got up from the grass. "Anytime. And Sam is—"

"Right behind you." Sam was brandishing a Fenton Wrist Ray, one of her favorite weapons. "Please tell me you left some of him for me."

Danny couldn't help but smile. Damn, she looked hot when she was out to kick some otherworldly ass. "Yeah, there's still plenty of him left, unfortunately, and I'm sure he'll be back any second." He frowned. "But what happened to your parents?"

"I left them back in the parking lot, where I'm sure they're trying to figure out how to ground me _beyond_ my natural life. But never mind them. What can we do to help?"

"I need to get Tucker and Val free. You two stay here and keep an eye out for Future Boy to return." Then, he flew back to where Tucker and Valerie were still immobilized by the fields of ectoplasm that his future self had trapped them in.

"Nice of you to finally remember us," Val said.

"Yeah, well, I was a little busy." He shot a blast of ice at Tucker, crystallizing the energy field so it would be brittle enough to break. "Okay, that should—"

Out of nowhere, a bolt of green energy hit him in the shoulder, knocking him to the ground. But it didn't come from the direction Jazz had blasted his future self, and it wasn't a ghost ray. It was from a weapon. Someone had _shot_ him. He heard Sam and Jazz call out his name in alarm, but he was more concerned with who had blasted him. Rolling over, he looked in the direction the shot had come from… and groaned. "You have _got_ to be kidding me."

Sam's parents were standing near Tucker and Val, both aiming ecto-weapons at him. Surprisingly, they looked like they knew what they were doing. Danny started to get to his feet, but Mr. Manson waved what looked like a Fenton Phaser in his direction. "Don't move, unless you want more of the same, you… _ghost_!"

"Mr. and Mrs. Manson, don't!" Tucker shouted, looking as if he was trying to wave his hands to stop them, but Danny hadn't quite broken through the energy field yet, and he couldn't make any large movements.

"DANNY!" Sam dashed up from behind. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but could you tell Bonnie and Clyde over there I'm one of the good guys?" Once more, he started to get up, but the whine of the Fenton Phaser powering up stopped him.

"I SAID DON'T MOVE!"

Sam gasped as she finally saw her parents. _"Dad?"_ Then, her eyes widened as she realized what was happening, and she dove in front of Danny. "NO! Leave him alone!"

"Get away from him, Samantha!" Mrs. Manson shouted, stepping up beside her husband and brandishing a Fenton Blaster, which was slightly larger than the weapon Mr. Manson had. "He was attacking your friend Tucker!"

Sam grunted in exasperation. "Have you completely lost your _minds_?"

"Samantha Manson, STEP AWAY FROM THE GHOST BOY!" Her father looked furious.

"NO! I will not let you hurt him!"

With Sam standing in their line of fire, Danny was finally able to get up and back over to Tucker. He punched his fist into the frozen energy field around him, cracking it, and then Tucker was free. With teeth chattering, he slapped Danny on the back. "Thanks, dude, but _man_, that's cold!"

"See?" Danny looked at the Mansons. "Good guy."

"Where on earth did you get those weapons?" Sam asked, aghast, while Danny, still careful to keep her between him and her parents, aimed his ice ray at the ecto-field surrounding Valerie.

"From the Fentons' speeder-rocket thing," Mr. Manson replied, still not letting down his guard. "If you think we're going to let our little girl go charging off to fight with ghosts, you've got another think coming, young lady! Now for the last time, step away from that Ghost Boy!"

A quick kick from Danny shattered the frozen ecto-field around Valerie, and she wiped the debris off her suit. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there still a big, ugly ghost out there that needs a good butt-kicking?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah, we need to go help—" A scream cut him off. "JAZZ!"

Behind them, Danny's future self was barreling toward them. Jazz was shooting at him with her Bazooka, but he got off a shot of his own and knocked the weapon from her shoulder. He then sent a storm of ectoplasm in their direction, which Danny countered with a shield. "Try and get him from behind while I hold him off!" he shouted at Valerie, Tucker, and Sam.

Valerie shot off on her sled, looping around and targeting him from behind, while Sam and Tucker each fired at him from the side. While the four of them kept Phantom busy, Jazz ran to retrieve her weapon.

"Wh-what is that thing?" Mr. Manson asked, and Danny realized that he probably hadn't seen many truly powerful ghosts.

"That would be the bad guy. Just stay behind me and—"

The assault stopped abruptly as Phantom switched his energy to shield himself from the three-sided attack. Then, he went invisible.

"Where'd he go?" Tucker called out.

Danny looked around. "Crud. I don't know. He doesn't set off my Ghost Sense for some reason."

"Let me see if my sensors pick him up." Valerie held out her left arm and a viewscreen popped up out of her gauntlet. She tapped a few keys below it.

The clattering of footsteps and the whine of more ecto-weapons drew Danny's attention behind him as his parents and Mr. Gray burst into view from the glade of trees behind the Mansons. "Kids!" Danny's dad sounded ready for action. "Where's the spectral scum? Jazzy-pants said he was a real dangerous one."

"Daaaad!"

Danny ignored his sister's protest and answered his father. "We don't know. He disappeared."

"He's not showing up on my scanners," Valerie said. "Think we scared him off?"

"I doubt it. He's not gonna be happy until…" Danny decided he didn't want to finish that thought.

"Valerie Elizabeth Gray! I do not remember giving you permission to use that suit!" Mr. Gray looked ready to kill Valerie, and the fact that he was holding a Fenton Bazooka over his shoulder wasn't helping.

"Valerie? _That's_ Valerie?" Mrs. Manson asked in surprise.

Danny's mom noticed the Mansons for the first time. "Pam? Jeremy? What are you doing here?" Then, she noticed their weapons. "Is that a Fenton Blaster?"

They never got a chance to answer. Danny's dark counterpart burst up out of the ground in the middle of them, turning visible and tangible as soon as he was clear. Before anyone could recover from the surprise to get a weapon aimed, he'd blasted out with another random storm of ectoplasm, sending all of them diving for cover. Danny couldn't get a shield up fast enough, and Phantom blasted him aside, knocking him to the ground. He then struck out with one of his ecto-coils, but Danny's face was half ground into the dirt, and he couldn't tell whom Phantom was going for until he heard Valerie scream, "DADDY!"

Danny got up as fast as he could, but Tucker was closer. He dove head first, knocking Mr. Gray to the ground, and the coil whipped past over their heads.

Everything was chaos after that. Valerie, enraged, attacked from above, while Sam knelt down low and shot at him with her Wrist Ray.

"Let's see how you like being blasted back where you came from, spook!" Danny's father called out and, as he aimed his Bazooka, Danny realized what he meant.

"No, wait! Don't use the Ghost Portal setting! We've gotta capture him, not suck him into the Ghost Zone. He's the one who destroyed Clockwork's Tower!"

Phantom howled in rage from behind the shield he'd created for himself. "You don't_ listen_! I didn't destroy Clockwork's Tower!" The shield blew apart, turning from defensive shield to offensive blast and, once more, they had to duck for cover. Another of his coils shot out, and Danny hurtled himself at his future counterpart but, before he could get there, the green rope-like tendril of energy had found its target—Jazz. It knocked her Bazooka out of her hands and wrapped around her torso and, with a flick of his wrist, Phantom had pulled her up against his chest and held her there with his other arm.

Everyone stopped shooting, and Danny's mom screamed out Jazz's name.

Phantom looked half-crazed. "EVERYONE BACK THE HELL OFF!"

Danny stopped short. "Let. Her. Go."

"Not until you listen to me!"

"You don't need to do this. They don't have to die for you to exist. But I promise you, if you so much as scratch her, you will wish you didn't exist."

Jazz struggled in his grasp, defiant. "Don't worry about me, Danny. Just kick his butt!"

Phantom jerked his arm up closer toward her neck. "Careful, _big sister_. I don't need you. I just need him." He glared at Danny.

"Fine. Let her go, and you can have me."

There was a gasp from their mom, but she didn't say anything, and Danny kept his focus on his future self, who scoffed at him. "Oh, please. If I let her go, everyone starts blasting me. I don't think so. We're gonna do this my way because, as much as it disgusts me to have to say it, I need your help."

Danny's eyebrow arched. "My help? To do what? Take down more of the Ghost Zone, like you did to Clockwork's Tower? Not gonna happen."

"I told you, that wasn't me. Think about it. How do you think I got out of the Thermos? It was destroyed from the outside by the ghost who did take down Clockwork. We need to team up to defeat him."

Danny gave him an incredulous look. "You have got to be kidding me. I'm supposed to believe you care what happened to Clockwork? Or anybody who isn't you?" Although he had to admit, the part about the Thermos being destroyed from the outside did sort of make sense.

"Don't be stupid. Of course I don't care what happened to Clockwork. Good riddance to the old meddler, I say. But I have worse enemies than Clockwork—or rather, _we_ have worse enemies—and somehow in this screwed up parallel time stream that _you_ created, one of them became more powerful than any ghost I've ever seen, with some sort of energy that goes way beyond ectoplasm. Why do you think you've gotten even this close to holding me off? I'm still weak from breaking out of his containment field. Think about what that means, for a ghost to have those kind of powers. To be more powerful than _me_, and I'm twice the ghost the others are, if you know what I mean." There was an evil glint to his eye, and Danny shuddered. "You, Danny, whether you like it or not, are half of who I am. You and I together—we'd be _three times _the ghost. We can take him down. All you have to do is team up with me."


	26. Chapter 26

**Twenty-six**

_**Amity Park**_

Danny stared at his future self, shaking his head in disbelief. "You're holding my… you're holding Jazz _hostage_," he corrected himself, remembering that Sam's parents were still there, "and you seriously think I'd even consider teaming up with you? For anything?"

Phantom rolled his eyes. "Please. You're all about teamwork." He glanced at Valerie before looking back at Danny. "Remember? 'You don't have to trust me. Just fight with me.'" He grimaced in disgust, his tone light and mocking.

"That was totally different."

"How?"

"Uh, 'cause she's not evil!"

"You teamed up with the other ghosts. The first time in Walker's prison, and later against Pariah Dark. 'The enemy of my enemy…'"

"Except you _are_ my worst enemy. Even if you're telling the truth about not taking down Clockwork, I think I'll take my chances with whoever did that over you."

"There's no love lost between us, I'll grant you that. I hate who I was just as much as you hate who you become."

"I already told you. I'll never become you."

"It doesn't matter, because there's a bigger problem here. They say you're your own worst enemy but, in this case, there are worse. Much worse. Believe me."

"Hello! You're still holding Jazz! Not to mention the fact that you specifically targeted and very nearly killed _every single person in the world that I care about_. So I'm pretty much thinking it really doesn't get much worse than you."

"So I almost killed them all." The shrug in his voice was chilling. Worse, even, than his smile, which was completely devoid of humor or humanity. "You might want to consider the enemy that would only kill _most_ of them, and what _else_ he might have in mind for someone you care about." His gaze shifted to fall somewhere over Danny's left shoulder.

Danny turned, and blinked. _Mom?_

A grunt of pain from Phantom brought Danny's attention back to him. In that brief instant that they had both been distracted, Jazz had taken the opportunity to lash out against her captor. Although her arms were bound tightly to her side, her legs were free, and she'd managed to twist herself into position to kick him hard in the groin. While he was doubled over, Danny blasted the energy coils around her with his ice powers, then dove in and snatched Jazz as they shattered. They tumbled to the ground together, landing in a heap.

"You okay?" he asked his sister.

"I'm good. Let's just nail the bastard and go home!"

A storm of weapons fired behind them but, by the time Danny got up and turned around, his future self had vanished again, and the firing ceased. Danny flew up to Valerie, who was circling overhead. "Valerie! Can your scanners pick him up?"

"Working on it!"

Sam dashed up to Jazz, tossing her the Bazooka she'd dropped when Phantom had grabbed her. "Jazz, heads up!"

Jazz snatched it out of the air. "Thanks, Sam."

Danny looked down at the crowd below, standing in a rough semi-circle, weapons ready and aiming at the spot where Phantom had disappeared. "Listen, everyone. As soon as he comes back, we need to weaken him, and then capture him. Does anyone have a Fenton Thermos?"

His mother held one up. "Right here!"

"Okay. On my signal, everyone fire, and when he's weak, my… Mrs. Fenton will nail him with the Thermos." Damn, he wished the Mansons would've just gone home so he could stop having to watch what he called his family.

"What's the signal?" Mr. Gray asked.

"You'll know it when you hear—"

"Danny! Behind you!" Valerie shouted.

He spun around just as his future self reappeared. With a deep breath, Danny let loose with a loud, unearthly cry—his Ghostly Wail.

Phantom was pushed back by the force of the sound, but only a dozen or so yards before he dug his feet in, standing his ground. "Not… this… time!" And he bellowed out a Ghostly Wail of his own. It rocked Danny backwards, but he didn't stop shrieking, and the two of them were at a stalemate.

Then, everyone began to fire. Bazookas, phasers, and blasters shot green beams from ground level, while Valerie attacked with her pink rays from just above and behind Danny. Phantom, all his energy focused on countering Danny's Ghostly Wail, couldn't get a defense up fast enough, and he took multiple hits, which blasted him off his feet.

Danny stopped wailing and doubled over, nearly exhausted from the effort, as his mother dove in with the Fenton Thermos. "Take that, you odious apparition!"

Phantom, beaten and tattered, managed to stagger to his feet and dodge the ice-blue ray emanating from the Thermos. "I will _not_ spend another nanosecond inside one of those thermoses, _do you understand me_?" And he shot out a massive beam of ectoplasm.

"MOM!" Danny screamed, no longer caring about the Mansons or anything other than protecting his mother.

But his cry was drowned out by a louder one—a howl of rage so loud and deep and bone-chilling, it stopped him in his tracks.

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_

And then the world turned green, and Danny was enveloped in pain, as if a live electrical power line had just wrapped itself around him. He dropped to his knees, then all fours, screaming in agony as electricity jolted through him. He couldn't escape the pain—it seemed to be in the very air he breathed, sending his lungs into spasms and cutting off his oxygen supply. There were sounds around him, someone screaming his name, but he couldn't focus on anything past the blinding, excruciating pain until, just as suddenly as it had come, it stopped.

"Danny! Are you all right?"

"I…" He staggered to his feet, trying to get his bearings, but the screams of agony hadn't stopped, and it took him a moment to realize they were coming from someone else. He looked up—and gasped.

He was looking at the world through a haze of mottled purple—an energy field of some sort, locking him and Valerie inside together. Beyond it, his future self was on his knees, shrieking in pain as something blasted him with a continuous stream of energy, wracking his body with bolts of lightning. The source of the attack was a… ghost? Danny wasn't quite sure. It looked like a ghost, and yet, somehow different. It was large, vaguely human-shaped, but more nebulous, as if it were merely a noxious cloud of… green? brown? blue? Danny couldn't be sure through the filter of the oddly-colored field surrounding him and Valerie. But despite its somewhat vaporous, smoky appearance, it still seemed to somehow have mass, like a… solid cloud. Which made no sense, but that's what it looked like. Its (his? her?) face was ill-defined, with only a dark smear where the mouth should be, and deep-set glowing red eyes, which were narrowed in something resembling fury as it howled in rage while torturing Danny's alter ego.

"DID YOU THINK I WOULD LET YOU RUIN EVERYTHING I HAD PLANNED? DID YOU THINK I WOULD LET YOU DESTROY THEM, AFTER EVERYTHING I SO CAREFULLY SET INTO PLACE? THEY ARE _MINE_! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

The voice was gravelly and booming and had a sort of echoing quality that sounded as if some reverb had been added in a recording studio, but it also sounded vaguely familiar. And the way it attacked Danny's future self was like the Emperor attacking Luke Skywalker in _Return of the Jedi_, just before Darth Vader picked him up and hurled him to his doom. Only here there was no Vader to rescue Phantom. Danny swallowed, sickened by the sight and, as much as he hated his future self, he was beginning to rethink his assertion that he was the worst there was. He tried to push out past the energy field surrounding him, but Valerie grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.

"It's no good. We're trapped. We all are. Trapped in energy fields, almost like what that other ghost used on me and Tucker, only this one was shocking you, just like that beam that… _thing_ is using on the other ghost. That's why I put up a shield of my own, to protect you from… whatever this is."

That explained the weird color. He was actually looking out through two energy fields—Valerie's pink shield and another field that must've been the green he'd seen just before he'd gotten fried. Wrenching his eyes off the horrible sight of the gaseous ghost attacking his future self, he could see that the rest of his friends and family were trapped in pairs inside energy fields of their own: Sam and Jazz, Tucker and Mr. Gray, his dad and Mr. Manson, Mrs. Manson and… _Mom! She's all right!_

All right, but staring, transfixed and horrified, as the strange new ghost continued its assault. "YOU CANNOT TOUCH WHAT IS MINE! YOU WILL PAY FOR ATTACKING HER!"

Danny had to find a way out. He had to stop this horrible torture. No one, not even his evil, slimebag, future self deserved… _this_. He backed up and aimed a blast of ice at the shield surrounding him.

Valerie yelped in surprise. "What are you doing?"

"I have to get out. I have to help him!"

"_Help_ him? The ghost who grabbed Jazz and tried to waste your mom? Are you nuts?"

"I don't care! Whatever that… thing is, it's way worse. We've gotta—"

Valerie's shield cracked, and Danny stopped the flow of ice, allowing a chunk of the shield to fall away, revealing the green force field beyond, but then he was doubled over in pain again.

"ARGH!" Valerie did something beside him, and the pain stopped. Danny straightened once more and saw that she'd put a new shield in place. "Are you outta your mind? That shield's the only thing keeping the other force field from killing you!"

"I've gotta do something to stop it!"

But it was too late. Whatever the new ghost was blasting at him, it proved too much for Danny's dark counterpart. He started to vaporize, chunks of him melting away, like a giant wax candle. Valerie made a retching sound, and she and Danny both averted their eyes.

Then, it was quiet, and Danny looked up again. The green, noxious, solid-cloud ghost towered over the spot where Danny's future self had been. Now there was nothing but a blackened hole in the earth, with wisps of steam rising from it. The ghost-thing shook what vaguely resembled hands, as if trying to flick water off of them, then turned to look at its other prisoners, who shrank back as much as they could within the confines of their energy fields. Danny squeezed his hands into fists. "We've gotta bust out of here, Val, before he goes after someone else."

"But how can—?"

The ghost stopped when it was facing the energy field that imprisoned Danny's and Sam's moms. "He can't hurt you now."

Now its voice was soft, almost… gentle? Danny blinked. What the _hell_?

"Oh gross!" Valerie nudged Danny with her elbow. "Is that thing hitting on your _mom_?"

And then he knew. _"Vlad?"_

It—_he_—turned toward Danny. "Hello, Daniel."


	27. Chapter 27

**Twenty-seven**

_**Amity Park**_

Danny gaped at the unrecognizable glowing green mass. "What _happened_ to you?"

The thing scoffed, and it certainly sounded like Vlad, despite the weird reverb to his voice. "What do you think happened to me? The same thing that always happens to me." He whirled around, this time facing the energy field with Danny's dad and Mr. Manson. "_Jack Fenton_ happened to me."

Danny's dad looked stunned. "Vladdy? Is… is that really you?"

"What? You mean you don't recognize me?" Although it was hard to read any sort of expression in the cloudy, gaseous face, the sarcasm in Vlad's voice was unmistakable. "Surely getting _left to rot in space_ hasn't changed me that much, has it?"

"I…"

"Do you have any idea what that was like, Jack? Stranded in space, unable to get back without burning up in the atmosphere? Oh, but wait, that wasn't even the best part. The real joy was when that blasted ectoranium asteroid nearly pulverized me!"

Danny shook his head, trying to get his brain functioning again. "What?"

Vlad ignored Danny and began pacing back and forth in front of his dad. "Try and imagine that, Jack. A single individual, crushed by the force of an asteroid large enough to destroy the entire Earth. Even ghosts shouldn't be able to survive that kind of impact. But let's not forget, this wasn't just any giant hunk of rock. It was composed entirely of_ectoranium_, a substance that felt like hundreds of kilovolts of electricity coursing through me when all I did was put my hands on its surface. What do you think it was like when it collided with my entire body while traveling at speeds upwards of _one million miles an hour_? It didn't just crush me, Jack. It _fused_ with me. The very substance I couldn't touch became a _part_ of me. Can you imagine the pain? I don't think I can even begin to describe it to you. Every cell, every molecule, every _atom_ in my body, infused with a never-ending source of excruciating pain. I wanted to die; I _should_ have died. But—and here's the really ironic part, Jack—the ectoranium is what kept me alive.

"You know what they say—that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. It was like the first accident, with your ridiculous prototype Ghost Portal, giving me new powers, re-creating me into something unique. Not a man, not a ghost anymore, but more powerful. Superior to every other being, both in the Human World and the Ghost Zone as well. Instead of being repelled by the ectoranium, it gave me its own abilities."

Danny's mother gasped. "Ectoranium! That's what the soot was! Ectoranium, but with the anti-ghost properties burned off."

Danny nodded. "That's why I couldn't touch anything at Clockwork's tower." There was no longer any question as to the identity of Clockwork's attacker. "And why this force field shocked me. And what you did to…" He couldn't even finish that thought.

Finally, Vlad turned his attention away from Danny's father. "Very good, Daniel. Too little, too late, but then, you always were a few steps behind, weren't you?"

Danny growled in the back of his throat. "Listen, Plasmius—"

"No!" Jack was gritting his teeth so hard it looked like his jaw might shatter. "Your beef's with me, Vladdy. _Just_ me. Leave him and all the rest of them out of it."

Vlad laughed—at least Danny thought it was a laugh. It was a mirthless, inhuman sound. "Oh, yes, Jack, my beef is with you. You're quite right about that. But how fortunate am I to have so many of my favorite people all gathered together in one place for my little homecoming?" He turned to face Danny and Valerie. "Daniel, of course, and Valerie Gray, my little protégée."

"Protégée? Why don't you let me out of here, and we'll see which one of us gets schooled!" Valerie shot back.

Vlad made a sound like he was clucking his tongue, although he didn't have a tongue that Danny could see. "Now, now. You'll get your chance. And this is your father, if I recall?" He turned to face Mr. Gray and Tucker. "And my successor, our very young mayor. Congratulations on your appointment. It was a coup almost worthy of me."

Tucker glared at him, but didn't say anything, and Vlad's attention turned to Jazz and Sam. "Ah, Jasmine. What a lovely young lady you're turning out to be. More like your mother every day. And let's not forget Amity Park's own little Helen of Troy. Those are your parents with Jack and Maddie, aren't they?" He nodded towards the two energy fields containing Sam's and Danny's parents. "A little unexpected to find them along, but the more the merrier. But you, my dear—who knew such a dreary girl could be the center of such a tempest in a teapot?"

"Watch how you talk about my daughter, you… whatever you are!" Mr. Manson shouted.

For once, Danny was in perfect agreement with Sam's dad but, before he could get out a threat of his own, Sam gasped, then her eyes narrowed in anger. "It was _you_! You posted that stupid video!"

Rage washed over Danny. "I'm gonna break you in half, Plasmius!"

"Now, now, Daniel. Celebrity has its price. And you are quite the celebrity these days, aren't you? _Adorable_ statue in front of City Hall. All for… stealing _my_ idea, was it?"

"Your idea?" Danny scoffed. "Yeah, it was exactly like your idea. Except for, you know, the extortion. And the tiny little detail that mine actually_ worked_."

"Yes. Turning the entire planet intangible. Quite a feat. And the brief loss of the Earth's mass, and therefore its gravitational pull, altered the asteroid's trajectory, sending it right into… me. So perhaps there's enough blame for you to share with your idiot fa—"

"ENOUGH!" It was Danny's mother, and she was using her you-don't-even-want-to-_think_-about-how-grounded-you-are voice. Seeing as it was directed at Vlad and not him, Danny wanted to cheer as she glared at her onetime college friend. "Vlad Masters, you just… get over yourself already!"

Vlad turned to face her, and his whole being seemed to… soften. "Ah, Maddie, my love—"

"Don't you call me 'your love,' and don't you blame Jack or Danny or anyone else for the mess you've made of your life. You have no one to blame but yourself!"

"Yes, of course." Even with the weird sort of echo-y quality to his voice, the sarcasm was still apparent. "Because it was _my_ prototype Portal that blew up in my face. It was _my_ mistake of pouring diet cola into the filtrator that caused the ecto-acne and all those years in the hospital. I'm the one who fired up those rockets, leaving me stranded in the depths of space."

"You're right, Vladdy." Danny's dad shook his head slowly. "I was wrong to leave you behind like that."

"Jack—"

"No, Maddie. It wasn't the right thing to do. But you didn't leave me a lot of options, did you Vlad? You threatened the world, you threatened my family, my wife… What was I supposed to do?"

"Pay for all the ways you've ruined my life!"

Danny's mother rolled her eyes. "Oh, for the love of… you're a forty-six-year-old man! Take some responsibility for your life! You ruined it yourself, not Jack!"

"Don't you understand what I lost because of that accident? Years of my life! My work! You!"

"Please! You didn't lose anything to that accident! You threw it all away because you decided to be a bitter, petulant child instead of a man. You could have used what happened to you to make something of yourself, but you didn't. You chose to be pathetic instead. And as for me… you never had me to begin with. I don't love you. I _never_ loved you, and I think twenty-two years should be plenty of time to get over it and move on, already!"

"Get over it? GET OVER IT?" He moved closer to her, and would've been roaring in her face had it not been for the energy field surrounding her. Danny clenched his fists, helpless to defend his mother against him. "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT WHAT I'VE BECOME BECAUSE OF THAT MORON'S FOOLISHNESS!" He shot out his arm, pointing at Danny's dad. And then he backed off. "No, Maddie. I don't give up that easily. I did make something of myself. Billionaire entrepreneur, successful politician. I didn't achieve what I did by giving up. And I won't give up on you."

Danny had had all he could take. "Leave her alone, Plasmius, or so help me…"

Vlad whirled on him. "You'll what? Make no mistake, Daniel. That shield Valerie has created around you is the only thing keeping you from sharing your future self's fate, and that is only because _I_ am allowing it to do so. My new ectoranium-based powers can blast through any ecto-shield or defense, and they will be lethal to you. To _all_ of you," he added, with a weight that made Danny burn. But Vlad didn't pause. "You, Daniel, are still here only because I haven't given up on you, either. You and I are the same, and the sooner you accept that and choose to join forces with me, the sooner we can stop playing these ridiculous cat and mouse games."

Danny's lip curled in contempt. "Still the same old crazed-up fruit loop. What part of 'never gonna happen' is hard for you to understand?"

"The part where I accept anything less than total victory!" He pulled back suddenly. "But I can see we aren't going to get anywhere like this. We're all a little… overwrought right now. What we need, I think…" He paused, producing a long, purple staff out of nowhere. It was topped with a sort of claw-shaped ornament that held in place a large stopwatch. Danny's eyes widened. _Clockwork's staff!_ Before Danny could say anything, Vlad jammed a thick, murky fist down on the mechanism on top of the clock. "…is a little _time out_."

* * *

_**Somewhere… else**_

Danny tried to open his eyes but was blinded by a bright light. It felt like only an instant had passed, like he'd merely blinked, but he was suddenly lying on a smooth, hard surface, and every nerve ending in his body was screaming in protest, as if he'd just lost a fight with a gang of electric eels. And why was everything so bright? He blinked rapidly a few times, trying to let his eyes adjust to the sudden light, but even before he could see clearly, he knew he was no longer in Amity Park. He was indoors, in some sort of large chamber. Slowly pulling himself up into a sitting position, he rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands, then blinked a few more times as the light finally started to feel less painful and things around him came into focus.

Looking around, he could see that he was, in fact, in some sort of large, domed room. It looked like an audience chamber of some sort, with rows of benches circling the floor around him, each row higher up than the previous. Many of the benches were broken and lying askew, however, as if a huge brawl had occurred here. Danny tilted his head up to look at the dome above him—and gasped. It was bright blue, with two gaping holes that opened out into the mottled green glowing "sky"—the Ghost Zone. One of the holes had even edges, as if it was meant to be there, while the other was a ragged hole that looked like the result of an explosion of some sort. It reminded him a little of the Amity Park Observatory, only much creepier. Hanging from the ceiling at regular intervals around the chamber like macabre lighting fixtures were huge, disembodied eyeballs. They hung from stalks that looked like bloody optic nerves, only they were attached to the top of the eyeballs instead of the back. A few were intact, but most of them were blasted apart or hanging at odd angles, like those stupid prank glasses with eyeballs attached to the ends of springs.

"Oh, man. We are _so_ not in Kansas anymore."


	28. Chapter 28

**Twenty-eight**

**_Observants' High Council Chamber__  
The Ghost Zone_**

A groan startled Danny, and he looked around him, suddenly remembering Vlad and his family and friends. He was alone in the huge chamber, however, except for one figure lying sprawled on the ground about a hundred feet away. "Valerie!"

He tried to get up and rush to her side, but his nerves still felt jangled and his head was swimming, so he could only crawl slowly across the floor. Valerie groaned again, raising herself up on two arms.

"Valerie! Are you all right?" He finally reached her side as she sat up.

"Danny? Where—AAAAAHH!" She screamed as she saw the hanging eyeballs above. _"Where are we?"_

"I'm not sure. It seems kinda familiar, but I can't remember exactly why. We're definitely somewhere in the Ghost Zone, though."

"You _think_?" She looked around again, this time keeping her gaze across the room and not above. "What happened? Where's everyone else? And… Vlad? That was Vlad Masters, right?"

"Yeah. Or what's left of him after the asteroid got him." Danny grimaced. "I don't know where anyone else is. I just woke up myself."

"Woke up? But it doesn't feel like we've been asleep or unconscious. It feels like no time has passed. One second we were in the park, and the next I was on the ground here."

"Yeah, I know." He remembered the staff Vlad had pulled out just before everything changed. "Plasmius has Clockwork's staff. I'm guessing he stopped time and then somehow moved us here before restarting it again."

Valerie rose to her feet with more agility than he could have managed at the moment. "Wherever here is." She looked around again. "Man, there was some kinda fight here."

"Apparently." He dragged two fingers across the floor, smudging his white gloves with a soot-like substance. "This looks the same stuff that we found all over the place at Clockwork's tower, which must be from the powers Vlad got when the asteroid… did whatever it is the asteroid did to him."

"But it's not shocking you."

"No. Which means the fight happened at least a day ago. The residue wears off after, like, a day. When Sam and I went back to Clockwork's the next day, nothing shocked me."

"So Vlad did this."

"I'm guessing. I just wish I knew whose place this was and how big a deal it was that they were defeated." Trying once more to get to his feet, he stumbled, and Val reached out to steady him.

"Looks like he got you with that anti-ghost beam of his, too."

"Sure feels like it." Danny shook his hands, trying to get rid of the weird tingly feeling.

"You okay?"

"Been better. But we've got bigger problems. Like what happened to Sam and Tuck and Jazz and all our parents."

"How we gonna find 'em if we don't even know where _we_ are?"

"I'm not sure. I… oh, _duh_." He tapped his left ear. "The Fenton Phones!" Flipping the microphone down in place, he toggled on the talkback. "Sam, Tucker, Jazz. Anyone there? Come in, guys. Where are you?"

There was no answer. Danny frowned.

"Maybe they don't work in the Ghost Zone?" Valerie suggested.

"No, they work fine in the Ghost Zone. Although I don't think we've ever used them to try and communicate between the Ghost Zone and the Human World. Hopefully that means they're still back in Amity Park."

"With Vlad?"

Danny shuddered. "Okay, maybe not. We need to get out of here and figure out where in the Ghost Zone we are, and see if we can find a portal."

"You up to it?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling a little less shaky now." Stepping away from her, he morphed into human form.

"Why'd you do that?"

"The Ghost Zone is opposite of the Human World, remember? In human form, I can phase through stuff." To prove his point, he walked towards the rows of seats surrounding them. Phasing through them, he headed toward the wall—and came to an abrupt stop when he bumped into the very solid and tangible wall, which flared electric blue. "Ow!"

"So much for that plan."

"I don't get it. Humans should have no trouble… oh, crud." He shook his head, remembering. "A couple of years ago, Vlad figured out how to tweak the Ghost Shield so that it works on humans, too. He used it to keep me and Jazz trapped together once."

Behind her faceplate, Valerie frowned. "But if he set up something like that here, then he must've planned for this."

"Maybe. Who knows how much extra time that 'time out' gave him, though." Danny pressed his hands against the wall, getting the same blue aura wherever he touched it, and started walking along it, testing to see if there was anywhere he could get through. When he got about a quarter of the way around the chamber, he reached a massive set of double doors, but was not surprised to find them locked. He changed back to ghost form, then took a few experimental blasts with his ghost ray and then his ice powers, and Valerie tried a few weapons of her own, but nothing had any effect, so he headed back towards Valerie in the center of the room. "We could try the hole in the ceiling, but I'm guessing that'll be shielded, too."

She nodded, making her jet sled appear out of nowhere, and the two of them flew up to inspect the hole in the dome, but when Danny got close, it was like hitting an electric fence. He backed off quickly, rubbing his arms again. "Okay, I really could live the whole rest of my whole life without getting jolted by that stupid ectoranium again."

"I thought you said it wore off."

"It did." Danny frowned up at the hole. "Look. It looks extra green out there. I think he's got the whole place shielded in one of those ectoranium fields."

"Fabulous." They circled the dome, spitting off a few random shots for good measure before landing back on the ground in the center of the chamber.

Something gnawed at Danny as he watched Valerie make her sled disappear again. "That's weird, now that I think about it. You have your suit and your sled and your weapons, and I have my Fenton Phone and the Ecto-flage belt I was wearing back at the park—"

"Oh! Your belt!"

"What?"

"That belt! You said your dad made it to mask your ghost signature, right? Maybe if it's turned on, that anti-ghost energy won't shock you!"

"I dunno. My dad said it only masks my passive ghost energy, not my powers or my actual physical makeup. He said ghost shields and the Specter Deflector would still work against me, so I don't see why this would be any different."

"Doesn't hurt to try."

Danny crossed his arms and leveled a glare at her. "Except for the part where trying means I have to fly into that field and get shocked again." Although, she did have a point. Not a lot was known about ectoranium, and they definitely didn't know anything at all about what a ray form of it might or might not do, so he figured he should at least try. Toggling on the switch on the center of his belt, he flew up towards the jagged hole in the domed ceiling.

And fell back when it shocked him again. "There. You happy?"

She didn't answer, and he landed beside her once more. "Anyway, what I was about to say was, I wonder why Vlad would leave us our weapons and stuff, and your suit and sled."

"I doubt he knows how to take the suit away, actually. Whatever Technus did when he created it sort of hard-wired it to me. You can't just take it off like the old one."

Danny took a deep, uneasy breath. "I'm telling you, Val, the more I learn about that suit, the more nervous it makes me. Technus isn't exactly trustworthy. Hell, I thought maybe he was the one who posted that video of me and Sam. He tried to convince me—" He stopped short, then looked up at all the hanging eyeballs. "Oh, man, I think I just figured out where we are. And if I'm right, this is bad."

"What?"

He pointed at the ceiling. "This is an _observatory_. And that hole, the one that's supposed to be there? It's like it was made for a telescope. And all the eyes everywhere? You sensing a theme?"

Valerie rubbed her arms. "Yeah. Creepy peeping tom."

"Exactly. This place belongs to the Observants. That's why it looks familiar. I came here once, when Vlad let loose that stupid weather ghost. I brought him back here after we captured him. Not to this room, but it was another, smaller, observatory kind of place. The Observants' whole reason for existence is to watch stuff. Frostbite said they have a High Council that holds trials for ghosts who are messing around with the Human World. Doesn't this place look like some sort of council meeting room or something?"

"Yeah, it does."

"If Vlad took out both Clockwork and the Observants, then he's pretty much gotten everyone who keeps an eye on anything in the Ghost Zone. Unless you count Walker, which I don't, because he only cares about his own rules, not any sort of real justice."

Valerie's eyes widened. "Vlad's set himself up to take over the whole Ghost Zone, like the Ghost King."

"Worse. With these new powers of his, he's way more dangerous than Pariah Dark was." Another thought hit Danny, and he slapped his forehead. "He was the last one with the Crown of Fire, too."

"I don't think that matters. You said yourself, he's already more dangerous than the Ghost King was. I don't think he needs the Crown or that freaky ring to do any damage."

"Probably not." Danny looked up at the ceiling again. "Dammit! I should've listened to Technus. If I'd have checked out the Observants when he suggested it, maybe I could've done something." He turned to Valerie. "We need to get out of here, find the others, and stop him."

"As creepy as that other ghost was, maybe you should've taken him up on his offer to team up."

Danny grimaced. "I don't know. He's not a lot better. He was a sort of Ghost King in his time, too."

She cocked her head at him. "So what's the story about him, anyway? You said something about a future you? You wanna explain that one?"

He sighed. "It's a really long story, and one I'm not exactly proud of."

"Just give me the Qwik Notes version."

"He's me from ten years into the future, but it's an alternate future that's no longer possible. Clockwork sorta… arranged things so I would see exactly what I would become if I made the wrong choices, and I ended up changing the past—well, his past, anyway—so that I would never turn into that. He shouldn't exist at all, except he used one of Clockwork's medallions to come to the present to try and keep things the same, but I beat him. Since he wasn't in the time stream when everything changed, he still exists even though I won't ever become him."

She wrinkled her nose. "You need a roadmap to follow that story."

"I know. Welcome to the joy that is working with Clockwork."

"So what's with all that calling me 'his girl' and the comments about how I look in the new suit and stuff? That was pretty creepy."

Danny felt his cheeks turn red, and he wasn't sure if it was more from embarrassment or anger. "Ugh. Yeah." He let out a huff of air. "Here's the thing, Val. His past and mine diverge at the point of the C.A.T. test we took freshman year. Remember that? With Lancer going all apocalyptic about our futures if we flunked that test?"

"Uh-huh. And?"

"And, I guess that was after the whole Ghost King thing when you and I started getting kinda interested in each other, but before we went out those couple of times, and way before I was willing to even consider I might think of Sam as more than a friend. And…" He swallowed, then had to force himself to tell her the rest. "In _that_ future, the one that will never happen, everyone else in my life is dead. My whole family, Sam, Tucker, everyone. That's one of the big things Clockwork helped me change. But to the evil me, in his timeline, you were pretty much the only one left to stand against him when he destroyed Amity Park, and, well…" He paused again, looking down at the ground. "You know how we always were when we used to fight against each other, right? It was kinda…"

"Fun?"

It wasn't the word he was thinking of, but it was much less awkward, so he nodded. "Yeah. So he had that whole arch-enemy-you-flirt-with thing going with the future you, and can we stop talking about this now? It's making me really uncomfortable."

"Yeah, okay." He could see out of the corner of his eye that she was hugging herself, looking pretty disturbed. "So then, what's the deal with Vlad and your mom?"

Danny groaned. "Oh, yeah, that's much less cringe-worthy." But at least it was no reflection on him—past, present, or future—and she did have the right to know how Vlad's mind worked, considering how much he liked to mess with her.

"Okay. My parents and Vlad were friends back in college, and he had a thing for my mom. The three of them were working together on the prototype of the Ghost Portal and, before Vlad got a chance to tell my mom how he felt, my dad sorta accidentally blew up the portal in Vlad's face. He got ghost powers, and he blamed the accident and my dad for the fact that he 'lost' my mom, even though she was never interested in the first place. But he's been obsessed with her ever since. And then he found out I had ghost powers from an accident really similar to his, so he's been obsessed with me, too. He's got this idea that I'm gonna suddenly decide I hate my dad and wanna be his son instead." Danny rolled his eyes. "So that's pretty much Vlad in a nutshell. Emphasis on the _nut_. Control the world, control my mom, control me, and destroy my dad. Not necessarily in that order."

"How does your sister fit into the picture?"

He shrugged. "I don't think she really does for the most part. If he can use her to mess with me or mess with my dad, he will. He'd probably include her in his completely twisted concept of his perfect little family if he thought she'd have him, but he's not really focused on her one way or another." Tilting his head back, he looked up at the ceiling. "But we really need to stop talking and figure out how to get out of here and—" His eye caught one of the damaged eyeballs hanging from the ceiling, and he noticed something inside. "Hey, what's that?"

"What's what?"

He cocked his head to the side and squinted up at it. "The eyeball thingy. I think they're for more than just really gross decoration. It looks like some sort of recording studio in there." He flew up and peered through the broken glass into the eyeball's interior. "Yeah, there's all sorts of tech stuff in here. Tucker would have a field day."

Valerie, on her sled once more, joined Danny at his side. "Tucker's not the only one who knows his technology, you know. Let me take a look."

"Careful. Lots of broken glass, and the cable it's hanging from is half-shredded."

Hovering on her sled, she poked her head in, careful to avoid the shards of broken glass. "You might be right. This could easily be surveillance or video equipment." She inched her sled back and looked around, then zoomed off to another hanging eyeball, one that wasn't broken. "The front is some kind of screen or monitor, like a rear-screen projector."

Danny flew to her side. "Think you can figure out how to work it? If the Observants watched everything, maybe there's a way we can see what's going on outside."

Valerie put her hand behind her neck. "I dunno. I'm better with human tech than ghost tech."

Danny gave her a dubious look. "You have an entire suit made of ghost tech."

"Well, yeah but, I told you, it's sort of hard-wired to me. I just want it to do something, and it does."

Danny turned back to the hanging eyeball. "So if I wanted to see what happened in the park before we ended up here—"

There was a brief hum, like a computer monitor coming out of sleep mode, and then an image of Amity Park appeared on the screen. It showed him and Sam just as she turned away from him, and then a blur of white and gray flew in and rammed into Danny, smashing him into a tree.


	29. Chapter 29

**Twenty-nine**

_**Observants' High Council Chamber  
The Ghost Zone**_

Danny's eyes widened in surprise as their encounter with his future self replayed on the weird eyeball monitor. "Well, that was easy."

"Now wish to see next week's winning lottery numbers," Valerie suggested.

Danny shook his head. "Be careful what you wish for. Trust me on that one."

They turned back to the screen as it replayed all the events in the park, from the initial fight with Danny's future self, to the arrival of Valerie and Tucker, then Jazz and Sam, then Sam's parents, and finally his own parents with Valerie's dad. They watched as Phantom attacked Mr. Gray, and Tucker knocked him out of the way.

Valerie whistled. "Wow, Tucker's got _game_. He really saved my dad's butt. I owe him big time."

Danny gave her a sideways glance. "Pretty impressive, huh?"

"Yeah. I knew he was a genius with the techno stuff, but that was—" She stopped, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at Danny. "Wait a minute. You aren't trying to hook us up, are you?"

"Why? Do you wanna be hooked up?"

She wagged her head. "Oh, no. I'm onto you, Fenton. You're just trying to palm me off on someone else to ease your guilty conscience."

"_My_ guilty conscience? What do I have to feel guilty about?"

A smirk blossomed on her face, and she chuckled. "You are _so_ easy to mess with."

He let out an exasperated huff of air. "Remind me, why am I friends with you?" Then, he realized something, and he arched an eyebrow at her. "Oh, you're good. You just neatly deflected the question of whether or not you wanted to hook up with Tucker."

"Yes I did." Without further comment, she turned back to the screen. Phantom had Jazz now, and he was trying to convince Danny that there was an enemy greater than him.

Danny winced, wishing he'd listened. But then he heard Phantom say, _So I almost killed them all_, and the nonchalance, the complete lack of anything resembling emotion in his voice angered Danny all over again. No, nothing was worth teaming up with _that_ and, when Jazz kicked the bastard where it hurt, Danny almost cheered. He watched as everyone—including Sam's parents, he noted with some surprise—started blasting his future self. "Man, talk about having game. Look at Sam's parents! I think I'm officially freaked out by that."

His future self disappeared and, when he came back, there was the dueling Ghostly Wails, everyone blasted again, his mom went after Phantom with the Fenton Thermos, and he attacked back…

_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_

The howl came from offscreen, as did the blast of green energy that enveloped them all, freezing them in pairs inside separate energy fields. Danny saw himself cry out in pain and fall to the ground as lightning-like bolts of electricity wracked his body. The onscreen Valerie cried out his name, then quickly assessed the situation and created a shield around them inside the energy field in which Vlad had imprisoned them, blocking the anti-ghost energy from him. Danny turned to the real Val beside him. "You really saved _my_ butt there. Thanks."

She shrugged. "It's what I do."

He looked back at the screen, where Vlad was now torturing the future Phantom, and turned away again. "Okay, I really don't wanna watch that again. Wonder if there's a way to fast-forward to the part where Vlad freezes time…"

Immediately, the image sped up. Valerie glanced at Danny. "_Now_ you think of it."

"Better late than never."

It slowed back to normal speed at the part right after Vlad shouted at Danny's mother, when he turned his attention to Danny instead. _Make no mistake, Daniel. That shield Valerie has created around you is the only thing keeping you from sharing your future self's fate, and that is only because_ I _am allowing it to do so. My new ectoranium-based powers can blast through any ecto-shield or defense, and they will be lethal to you. To _all_ of you. You, Daniel, are still here only because I haven't given up on you, either. You and I are the same, and the sooner you accept that and choose to join forces with me, the sooner we can stop playing these ridiculous cat and mouse games._

The onscreen Danny wasn't having any of it. _Still the same old crazed-up fruit loop. What part of "never gonna happen" is hard for you to understand?_

_The part where I accept anything less than total victory!_ _But I can see we aren't going to get anywhere like this. We're all a little… overwrought right now. What we need, I think—_this is where he pulled out Clockwork's staff and pounded on the top of it—_is a little time out_.

On the screen, everyone but Vlad froze, although it was kind of hard to tell the difference since they were all locked into those green energy fields anyway. With a snort of contempt, Vlad shook what passed for a head. _All too easy_. He leaned in close to Danny. _We must finish our little chat later, Daniel. I'm going to send you and the lovely Ms. Gray somewhere safe, while I tie up the loose ends here._

Taking Clockwork's staff, he aimed it just to the right of the energy field surrounding Danny and Valerie, and a swirling blue portal appeared beside them. It was similar to the natural portals that opened into the Ghost Zone at random locations, but less… ghostly. Vlad then aimed a beam of that weird new anti-ghost energy at them, and the green field of energy around them glowed brighter and brighter until it shattered, taking out Valerie's pink shield inside as well. With the force field gone, Vlad was able to use his anti-ghost energy to send Danny and Val through the blue not-quite-a-portal, which disappeared afterwards.

Danny rubbed his arms. "Well, that explains why I felt like I'd taken a bath with a toaster when we got here."

Valerie nodded. "So that time staff thingy must've made a Ghost Portal, and that's how he sent us here."

"Not exactly a Ghost Portal. I'm guessing it's more like a Time Portal. Clockwork would always appear and disappear through a portal kinda like that."

Onscreen, Vlad walked slowly over to where Danny's mom was imprisoned with Mrs. Manson. Reaching out with a cloudy-but-still-somehow-solid green hand, he touched the energy field in front of Danny's mom's face. _Ah, Maddie. So much time lost because of Jack's foolishness. But we'll get it back, my love. I swear._

Danny felt his stomach turn over and Val let out a groan in disgust. "Ewwww. That's just… the thing with your mom is really creepy, especially with him all green and… kinda gassy like that."

"Tell me about it. I think I'm gonna hurl."

Vlad took a step back. _I need you to wait for me as well, my dear. I will join you shortly._

Another burst from Clockwork's staff, and the same kind of blue portal opened up next to her and Mrs. Manson. When Vlad blasted them with his anti-ghost energy, Danny gasped. "Mom!"

Valerie gripped his arm. "She's okay. He's just sending her here, like he did us. Look."

She was right, of course. Instead of hurting his mom or Mrs. Manson, it merely broke through the containment field, just as it had with Danny and Val, and sent them through the blue not-quite-a-portal, which then disappeared.

Vlad approached Danny's dad and Mr. Manson next. This time he didn't say anything, instead breaking through the energy field surrounding them like he had the others, leaving the two men free, but still frozen in time. Vlad pulled out two of Clockwork's medallions—and just where was he keeping all this stuff he was carrying on him anyway? He slung one of them over Danny's dad's neck. Jack blinked but, before he could move, Vlad created another force field around him and Mr. Manson.

Jack looked around, as if trying to get his bearings. It didn't take him long to realize his son and wife were both missing, and he glowered at Vlad. _What have you done with Maddie and Danny?_

_Oh, they're safe—which is more than I can say for you._

_Vladdy, you have to stop this madness!_

_Oh, but I haven't even gotten to the good part yet, Jack._ He moved away from Danny's dad and went over to the field containing Jazz and Sam. Another blast, and the field was destroyed, then he put the second medallion over Jazz's neck and replaced the field. _Hello, Jasmine._

She blinked, disoriented like her father. _What? What just happened?_

_I'm giving you a choice, Jasmine. You have one chance, so choose wisely. Renounce your father, and come be a part of my family along with your mother and your brother._

_What?_

Danny looked at Val, an uneasiness growing in his chest. "I don't like where this is headed. We need to find a way back there, _now_."

"What good would it do? All of this happened already."

"We don't know that. It wasn't that long since we got sent here—"

"Danny, look." Valerie pointed to the trees in the background. "They're not moving. At all. Even though there was a breeze the whole time we were in the park. He stopped time, remember? All of this happened in the time that doesn't exist between when he stopped time and when he started it up again after we were already here. That's why he put those medallions on your dad and Jazz, right? You said they let you keep going if time stops."

Danny's eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah, you're right. You're pretty quick picking up all this time stuff."

She shrugged. "After the whole alternate-future-evil-you thing, this is pretty straightforward. Well, that and my dad's totally into time travel stuff. I grew up on old episodes of _Doctor Who_. It actually starts to make sense after a while."

"Pretty geeky stuff for a former popular girl."

"Getting away from my dad's geekiness was why I became a popular girl. Kinda like how you wanted to be normal to get away from your parents' ghost fighting weirdness, right?"

"Point." Danny turned his attention back to the screen, his uneasiness returning. Onscreen, his dad seemed to share his apprehension. _Just do whatever he says, Jazz_.

Val glanced at Danny. "You don't think he'd…"

Danny shook his head slowly. "I don't like this. Usually it's all just a lot of bluster and saber rattling with him, but who knows how bad that ectoranium messed him up? And after what he did to the future me…."

Vlad whipped his head toward Danny's father, and the glowing red eyes seemed to flame even brighter. _Stay out of this, Jack! This is Jasmine's decision!_ He turned back to Jazz. _Join me, Jasmine, along with your mother and brother, and live._

She gaped at him. _Danny is right. You are definitely one crazed-up fruit loop._

_Ooh, wrong answer. But thank you for playing._ And with both hands, he hit her with a massive blast of ecto-energy, much stronger and more lethal-looking than the blast he'd use to send Danny's and Sam's moms, Danny, and Valerie through the Time Portals.

"NO! JAZZ!" Danny cried out, pressing his hands against the screen, even as onscreen, his father screamed the same. But it wasn't just Jazz—Sam was trapped in the same field with her, still frozen in time. As the energy poured into the field, Jazz fell to her knees, but Sam didn't so much as blink. Danny clutched at the screen, completely helpless. "SAM! NO!" Behind him, Valerie was gripping his shoulder hard enough to hurt, but he barely registered it. _Please stop, don't hurt them, it's me you want, not them, please…_

Danny's father was pleading with Vlad as well. _Stop! Don't do this! C'mon V-Man, you don't wanna do this, not to Jazz. Please! Your beef's with me, not them! Just let them go, and you can do anything you want to me!_

Vlad did stop, and Jazz collapsed onto all fours, but Vlad's attention was back on Jack. _Anything I want? But this _is_ what I want! To see you suffer by knowing that you are the reason for all this._ He resumed his assault until the force field around Jazz and Sam exploded and Jazz slumped face-first into the ground. Sam, in contrast, remained eerily still, like a statue that was a little too lifelike.

Danny blinked rapidly, gripping the eyeball-shaped monitor. "Oh, man. What did he _do_ to them?"

Vlad turned his attention to Tucker and Mr. Gray. _The new mayor and my protégé's father are of no use to me. Watch what your foolishness has wrought on them as well, Jack_. And he blasted them, too.

"TUCKER!"

"DADDY!" Valerie's grip on Danny's shoulder tightened until it was so painful he wanted to go intangible to get away from it, but it was the only thing keeping him from throwing up as he watched his best friend and Valerie's father suffer the onslaught in the same statue-like stillness as Sam had.

When their containment field exploded, Vlad faced Danny's father once more. _And now, Jack, the moment I've dreamed of for more than twenty years. I will leave you with this one small piece of comfort, however. Maddie and Daniel will be in good hands. Good-bye._

Before Jack could so much as protest, Vlad was shooting again. Mr. Manson endured the attack with the same blank frozen stare as Sam, Tucker, and Mr. Gray, while Danny's dad shrieked in pain like Jazz had. Danny lowered his head, looking away, while Valerie released the grip on his shoulder and sunk to her knees on her sled, crying.

When it was over, Danny looked up again. Vlad was standing in the midst of them, something resembling a satisfied smirk echoing in his nearly-gaseous face. He held up Clockwork's staff, then pressed down on the switch on top. _Time in_. Then, with a flare of blue from another Time Portal, he disappeared.

Behind them, the leaves in the trees started rustling in the breeze once more, and Sam, Tucker, Mr. Gray, and Mr. Manson, like four marionettes whose strings had suddenly been cut, crumpled to the ground, and Danny felt his whole world collapse with them.


	30. Chapter 30

**Thirty**

_**The Master Observant's Quarters  
The Ghost Zone**_

Maddie blinked, disoriented. One moment, she'd been standing upright in the middle of Amity Park, locked behind an ecto-energy force field while a mutated and psychopathic Vlad Masters ranted at her husband and her son, and the next she was flat on her back on something very soft and plush, looking up at a red velvet canopy of some sort. The change of location was confusing enough, but it was the sudden switch in orientation, from gravity below to gravity behind, that made her dizzy.

The wooziness passed, and Maddie slowly sat up to take in her surroundings. She seemed to be on the bed of a large and very plush yet creepy-in-a-gothic-sort-of-way bedroom. _Sam would probably feel right at home here_, she thought. But where was here?

"Ah, Maddie, my dear. Welcome."

Maddie jumped quickly out of the bed and looked toward the source of the voice. She almost jumped again when she saw where it came from. "Vlad!" But not the green, somewhat cloudy, not-quite-a-ghost Vlad as he'd been seconds before in the park. It was Vlad Masters, in human form, just as he had appeared the last time she saw him as a human, at the press conference where he revealed that he was a ghost. Now, like then, he was wearing a dark suit, probably expensive, and his white hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail at the nape of his neck. His eyes were no longer red and glowing, but the warm blue she remembered from their college days, when she had counted him a friend.

"Surprised, my love? You didn't think the ectoranium asteroid took away my human form, did you?"

Maddie glared at him. "It doesn't matter, Vlad. Human or ghost, you're still the same narcissistic sociopath you've always been. Now tell me where we are, how we got here, and what you've done with the others."

"Of course, darling."

"I'm not your darling, or your love, or your dear."

He smiled and gave a slight bow of his head. "Of course, _Maddie_. We are, as you might have guessed, in the Ghost Zone. For reasons that I think are obvious, I've decided to make my new home here rather than in the Human World, although once I have conquered this realm, I assure you I will conquer that one as well. But for now, I have taken over the domain of a race of ghosts known as the Observants. Pesky busybodies, the Observants, always watching everyone else. Rather creepy."

"You _are_ the expert," Maddie said through clenched teeth.

His smile only widened. "Touché, my… Maddie, touché. But anyway, I—"

"Save the speeches, Vlad. How did we get here? Do you have some sort of matter transport abilities?"

"In a manner of speaking. With the help of a few items I picked up from a ghost named Clockwork, I now can stop and start time. It's amazing what you can do in the blink of an eye when you can step outside of time for a while."

Maddie tried not to shudder. Vlad being able to control any aspect of time could not be good. "And where are my husband and my children and our friends?"

"They are quite safe. For now."

"Meaning?" Maddie crossed her arms in front of her chest. It was a move designed not only to show her displeasure, but to give her the opportunity to assess the weapons she usually had tucked into various hidden holsters in her jumpsuit. Unfortunately, while instantly transporting her here, Vlad had somehow managed to liberate her of her entire arsenal. She couldn't even feel the Wraith Wrangler, which she usually kept stashed in her glove.

"Meaning, that how safe they remain is entirely up to you."

She debated whether or not she could take him without her weapons. If he were just human, she was pretty sure she could manage, but with that strange new ghost form of his, she didn't have a prayer. "Well, good. Then let them go. And let me go, too, while you're at it."

He chuckled, sounding delighted. It made her want to retch. "Oh, Maddie, such wit!"

She shook her head. "I'm not really finding any of this amusing, Vlad. If your idea of seduction involves kidnapping, and threats against teenagers and innocent bystanders, then it really is no surprise that you've stayed a bachelor all these years."

"I think we both know why I've stayed a bachelor all these years."

"I want to see my family, Vlad. And Tucker, and the Mansons, and the Grays."

"Anything for you."

He waved his hand, and a panel opened up in the rich, purple carpeting in front of him. Something round rose up out of it, and Maddie put her hand to her mouth to stop herself from gasping out loud when she saw it was a huge, disembodied eyeball. It sat on a stand that resembled an optic nerve. Vlad held his palm up in front of the macabre thing as if presenting a pleasing tray of petits fours. She blinked. "And that is?"

"The window to the world," Vlad said. "Show me Daniel."

An image appeared on the eyeball, and Maddie realized it was a monitor of some sort. It showed a large, circular room that looked like a wrecking ball had been through it recently. In the middle of the room were Danny and Valerie. Danny looked a little weak on his feet, and Valerie was supporting him as he talked to her. _We need to get out of here and figure out where in the Ghost Zone we are, and see if we can find a portal._

_You up to it?_

_Yeah, I'm feeling a little less shaky now._ He stepped away from her, looking a little more stable, and then came the now-familiar bright flash of light that triggered his change from ghost to human form.

_Why'd you do that?_

_The Ghost Zone is opposite of the Human World, remember? In human form, I can phase through stuff._ Matching action to words, he walked through several upturned benches, climbing up what looked like stadium seating, until he hit the wall at the top. Literally. _Ow!_ The wall flared with a sort of blue aura where he hit it.

_So much for that plan._

_I don't get it. Humans should have no trouble… oh, crud. A couple of years ago, Vlad figured out how to tweak the Ghost Shield so that it works on humans, too. He used it to keep me and Jazz trapped together once._

Maddie glared at Vlad. "When exactly did you keep Danny and Jazz trapped together inside a shield that works on humans and ghosts?"

He waved his hand, and the image of Danny and Valerie disappeared. "Ancient history, Maddie. But I must say, although I knew that you were aware of Daniel's… shall we say, extra-curricular activities… I am impressed at how well you've adjusted."

She shook her head. "He's my son, and I love him, Vlad. Why is that so difficult to understand? Because you wasted twenty years of your life convincing yourself the only reason you had no shot with me was because you were half ghost? Well, it's time to face facts. It's not the ghost powers. Or the ecto-acne. Or anything. It's you. You are a horrible, horrible person. Can you please get that through your thick, obsession-addled brain?"

His eyes hardened into cold slivers but, other than that, his expression remained unchanged. "Understand this, Maddie. I am through taking no for an answer. You will be mine. And when you agree, then Jack and the others can go."

"But not Danny." It wasn't a question.

"Daniel will choose to stay with me as well. I promise you that. And Jasmine can stay or go as she chooses. But not until you stop being so stubborn."

"So far you've only shown me Danny and Valerie. Where are Jack and Jazz and the others?"

"See for yourself. Show me Jack."

Another image appeared on the weird eyeball monitor. This one showed a smaller room than the one Danny and Valerie had been in. It looked like an observatory, with a telescope dominating the middle of the room. Jack was sitting in front of it with a bored-looking Jeremy Manson, explaining in detail the difference between the operation of the Fenton Blaster and the Fenton Bazooka. Vlad rolled his eyes. "Scintillating as always."

Maddie glared at him. "And Jazz?"

The image changed again, to another observatory-like room very similar to the one where Jack and Jeremy had been. This time, Jazz and Sam were there, and it looked almost as if the girls were recreating their own version of the scene with their fathers. Sam was looking through the telescope in what seemed to be an attempt to avoid listening to Jazz lecturing her. It would have been humorous under other circumstances.

Another request from Vlad, and the screen showed Tucker and Damon in yet another observatory, consulting Tucker's PDA. A final word from Vlad, and there was Pamela Manson, alone in a room somewhat similar to the one where Maddie and Vlad were. Vlad smiled at Maddie. "Satisfied?"

"Not really, no."

"Well, I'm afraid that's the best I can do for right now. And I do have some business to attend to, so that will give you some time to think over my proposal."

"That wasn't a proposal, Vlad. It was a ransom demand."

"To-may-to, to-mah-to. I must be off, my dear. But please, make yourself at home, and I will return shortly for your answer." And before she could respond, a flare of bright green light nearly blinded her. In the glare, she could just make out Vlad's form changing into that horrible, noxious green cloud from before, and then he seemed almost to evaporate into the air, and Maddie was alone.

Immediately, Maddie explored the walls of the room. There was a set of double doors that she guessed was the main entrance to the room, and two single doors in the side walls opposite each other on either side of the main double doors. The double doors and one of the side doors were locked, and the third led to a bathroom. _Wait. Isn't this the Ghost Zone? Do ghosts need bathrooms?_ She shook that off, then kept trying to find an exit, but everything was locked tight. What had Danny said about the Ghost Zone being the opposite of the Human World? Shouldn't she be able to just phase through the walls? Apparently, Vlad had used that human shield Danny had mentioned here as well.

When she'd explored every corner of the room and found no way out, she turned to the eyeball monitor. "Show me Danny again." The image resolved on the screen, with Danny and Valerie back in the center of the large room, talking.

… _were friends back in college, and he had a thing for my mom. The three of them were working together on the prototype of the Ghost Portal, and before Vlad got a chance to tell my mom how he felt, my dad sorta accidentally blew up the portal in Vlad's face. He got ghost powers, and he blamed the accident and my dad for the fact that he "lost" my mom, even though she was never interested in the first place. But he's been obsessed with her ever since. And then he found out I had ghost powers from an accident really similar to his, so he's been obsessed with me, too. He's got this idea that I'm gonna suddenly decide I hate my dad and wanna be his son instead. So that's pretty much Vlad in a nutshell. Emphasis on the nut. Control the world, control my mom, control me, and destroy my dad. Not necessarily in that order._

Maddie shook her head in wonderment at her son's summary of the situation with Vlad. This was _routine_ to him. Just a part of his everyday life, to have a maniacal half-ghost obsessed with him. She clenched her fists, furious. It shouldn't be this way. He was _sixteen_. He shouldn't have ever been put in the position where Vlad's obsession was just some routine thing that could be summarized in thirty seconds. Exactly how much exposure had Vlad had to him, that it could get to that point? How had she allowed it, even after that "Dalv" fiasco in Colorado, when she'd seen for herself that Vlad was not merely the old college friend he pretended to be?

She put her hand to her forehead, pulling her hair back away from her face in frustration. This wasn't helping matters any. She had to focus on the matter at hand—making sure everyone else was really okay, and finding a way out of here. "Show me Jack," she said to the eyeball.

Jack and Jeremy appeared, and Jack was still having the same conversation. The only difference was that Jeremy now looked more tortured than bored. Maddie grinned. "That's my Jack."

Tucker was still examining something on his PDA, while Damon fiddled with the telescope in their observatory-like confines, and Sam now had her back to the telescope in their room and was discussing something with Jazz. Last was Pam Manson, who was kneeling in front of a door, examining the doorknob closely. Maddie squinted and looked closer. "What on earth is she doing? Is she picking the lock?"

A rattle at the knob of the locked side door in her own room interrupted her, and then suddenly the door opened, and Pam Manson was kneeling in the doorway. The two women blinked at each other in surprise. "Maddie!"

"_Pam_? Did you just pick that lock?"

She waved a dismissive, white-gloved hand. "You've seen my daughter's room. You don't think I'd let her have a lock on her door if I didn't know how to get through it, do you?"

Maddie wasn't sure whether to be disturbed or impressed. Given what the poor woman didn't know about her daughter's… extra-curricular activities, as Vlad had put it, Maddie decided to be impressed. Pam got up from the floor and brushed herself off but, when she tried to enter the room where Maddie was, she looked as if she'd run into a glass wall, except where she hit, there was a flare of bright blue and green, similar to what happened when Danny ran into the wall on the monitor. "Ouch!" Pam backed up and rubbed her nose.

Maddie groaned. "Sorry about that. Vlad has force fields set up to keep us locked in, otherwise we'd be able to just walk through the walls, at least according to Danny… _Phantom_." She winced, hoping Pam wouldn't notice her stumbling on the name. "Anyway, Vlad was just here. He has everyone else trapped in various rooms around here somewhere."

"How did we get here? And where exactly is here?"

"We got here through a sort of time warp, if I'm to understand Vlad correctly. And we're somewhere in the Ghost Zone."

Pam frowned. "The what?"

"It's sort of a netherworld, where ghosts live."

"Of course it is." Pam wrinkled her nose. "Don't you people ever go anyplace normal?"

Maddie arched an eyebrow at her. "I didn't exactly choose to be here. We were kidnapped by an obsessed half-ghost and transported here through a time warp."

"Somehow, I suspect this is a fairly typical holiday with the Fentons."


	31. Chapter 31

**Thirty-one**

_**Observatory Summit Detention Area  
The Ghost Zone**_

In the blink of an eye, the situation went from bad to worse. One moment, Jack was trapped inside an ecto-energy field while an enormous cloud of green ghost that used to be the man that used to be his best friend in the world was ranting about how Jack had ruined his life, and how he still had a freaky obsession with both Jack's wife and son. The next moment, Jack was chained up against a wall in some sort of energy binders. His hands were pulled up high over his head, and his legs were cuffed down below, immobilizing him in a particularly painful position. He could move his head to look around, but he couldn't see much. He was indoors, in some sort of small, dark room. The only light was from the glow of the energy binders cuffing his wrists and ankles, and a small, barred window opposite him, giving him the distinct impression that he was in a prison cell of some kind. "Maddie? Danny? Jazz? Is anyone there?"

"Fenton?"

Jack grimaced. Of all the voices to respond… "That you, Thurston?"

"Yes, it's me," Jeremy Manson replied, his voice prissy and annoyed. "And would you please stop calling me that?"

"Sure thing, L.L. Bean. Where are you?"

"How should I know? Not in Amity Park, that's for dang sure. I'm in… some kind of cage or cell."

"Same here. You chained up on a wall?"

"Uh… no."

"Must be just me, then. Vladdy's a bit… miffed with me."

"Really? I hadn't noticed."

"No reason to get snippy, there, Manson."

"Why not? This is your fault." There was a pause. "Wait. Why did I just have a big case of déjà-vu?"

Jack had a moment of déjà-vu himself, although he couldn't pinpoint any actual memory of being locked in a cage with Manson blaming him. Still, the man did have one thing right—it _was_ Jack's fault. His fault for not being more careful when activating the proto-portal the first time. His fault for not realizing that Vlad really hadn't forgiven him—that Vlad would _never_ forgive him. His fault for allowing that sicko anywhere near his wife and son.

His fault for leaving him stranded in space.

What had he been thinking? Whatever Vlad was or had done, Jack Fenton wasn't the kind of man who left anyone behind to die. And yet, that's exactly what he'd done. Sure, he'd tried to rationalize it. The planet was doomed… except it wasn't. Vlad was a ghost… except he was also human. Any way you cut it, what he'd done was unforgivable, and now it was his wife and his children and their friends who were going to pay for it. _My fault. All my fault._

"Actually, I take that back." Manson didn't sound apologetic, however. "It's the Ghost Kid's fault."

Jack bristled. He was willing to take his share of the blame, but he wasn't going to listen to this uptight yuppie insult his son. "How is it his fault? He was the one trying to stop that other ghost."

"He's also the one who's gotten my daughter involved in all this!"

Another point Jack couldn't really argue with. He sighed. "You know, Manson, your daughter's actually quite the good little ghost fighter."

"And you think that's a good thing?"

"Well… yeah." Jack couldn't imagine a higher form of praise, actually.

"Well, I don't. She's only sixteen. She doesn't need to be messing around with ghosts and spirits and all these weird weapons. And I couldn't help but notice that _your_ son wasn't in the park tonight."

Now Jack really had his hackles up. How dare he imply Danny was anything less than the courageous and selfless hero he was? But he couldn't exactly say that, so he hit on the first retort that flashed into his head. "Maybe because your daughter was out there with the Ghost Boy."

He knew it was a mistake as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Sam hadn't done anything worse than indulge in a little bit of youthful indiscretion, and Danny certainly bore his share of the responsibility for that. Hadn't there been enough accusations laid at the girl's feet without Danny's own father adding to it?

But for once, Manson didn't have a smart reply. There was an awkward silence, and Jack tried to think of some way to make up for his blunder, but Manson spoke first. "I'm sorry she hurt your son."

Now Jack felt worse. "They're kids. They'll bounce back. Why, I'll bet by this time next week, they'll have kissed and made up, and the whole thing'll be forgotten."

"Probably. She's always been very fond of Danny, and she was in the park to break it off with the Ghost Boy. Although, she sure is protective of him. I can't figure out _what's_ going on with her."

Jack frowned. _Break it off?_ "How did you and the missus end up there?"

"We found out Sam had snuck out of the house when her friend, Valerie, came over to get a book back that she'd borrowed. We dragged out of her that Sam had talked about meeting the Ghost Boy in the park, so we went looking for her and saw the whole thing."

Jack shook his head. So that's what the kids had been plotting during dinner.

"Although… apparently Valerie's a ghost hunter, too?" Manson sighed. "I should've known better than to hope that Sam would have a friend who was normal."

"Normal's overrated, Preston."

"Well, it beats the heck out of having the former-mayor-turned-ghost attacking you! And that other thing, before that. What was that?"

"I'm not sure. That's not one I've seen before." It was weird, though, because he had the feeling he should have known who it was. There was something so familiar about it, like the echo from a dream he'd long forgotten.

"Well, it sure seemed to know the Ghost Boy."

Jack clenched his jaw. Even now, several months after Antarctica and learning the truth, there was still so much of Danny's life that was a complete mystery to him. It was obvious from their exchange when that spectral scum was holding Jazz that Danny not only knew him, but knew him well. He'd even called him his "worst enemy." And yet, Jack couldn't remember Danny ever describing a ghost like that to him. And all that business about targeting and nearly killing every person in the world Danny cared about. How much was Danny still hiding from them?

And how much of it was for their own protection?

He coughed. Now was not the time to dwell on that. "Listen, Manson. Talking about what got us into this situation isn't going to get us out of it."

"I'd settle for knowing how we got in here. Do you know what he did?"

Jack's brow furrowed. "Not sure. But I think he's the one who took out the Ghost Master of Time, and that thing he pulled out just before we ended up here had a stopwatch on top of it, so I'm gonna go with time warp of some kind. But what we need to focus on is figuring out a way out of here—wherever here is—and finding our wives and the kids. We're gonna have to work together."

"Do you have any ideas?"

"I don't suppose you can get out of whatever you're locked up inside."

"What, do you think I've just been listening to you blather on for the past ten minutes? I've been checking around the cell, but it's locked tight. How about you?"

"Chained up to a wall, remember? And it's really kind of uncomfortable." Jack knew he wasn't the thinnest man in the world, and his weight pulling down from the wrist shackles was murder on his arms.

"Only uncomfortable? And here I'd been going for excruciatingly painful."

Jack started at the new voice coming through the cell window. "Vladdy?"

"Yes, of course it's me, you big moron." There was an electronic _whoosh_, like the sound the doors made on the Starship Enterprise in _Star Trek_, and the windowed wall across from him rose up into the ceiling. A figure was outlined in the bright light pouring in through the now open doorway, and Jack immediately recognized the silhouette of his old college friend.

As a human. No green, glowing, gaseous-looking ghost. Jack gasped. "You're still human!"

"Of course I'm still human, you idiot! The asteroid didn't _kill_ me. It just made me more powerful!"

Jack glowered at him, his teeth clenched. "Where are we? And what have you done with Maddie and the kids?"

"We're in the Ghost Zone. The Observants' Detention Center, to be specific. I do believe you two have the distinction of being the first humans ever held here. Oh, and Maddie's fine, by the way. Wonderful, in fact. She's quite cozy in our new little love nest."

"You lay one finger on her, and I'll tear you apart! You understand me?"

"Ooh! I've got chills! I see where Daniel gets his temper. And his empty threats."

"You leave him alone, too. You got me? And all those kids. You got a beef with me? Be a man and settle it with _me_."

"Oh, but Jack, don't you see? This _is_ how I'm settling it with you. Eye for an eye, old _pal_. You stole Maddie from me? I'm stealing her back. You ruined any chance I had at a family? I'll take yours."

"You don't get it, do you?" Jack shook his head. "They could've been your family all along. We _all_ could've been your family. We would've welcomed you with open arms! You know that!"

"Please. You think being the fifth wheel for the rest of my life is any way to live? That may be fine for the young new mayor, but not for me. I'm well on my way to ruling the Ghost Zone, Jack. And then I'll take over the Human World as well. And Maddie will be at my side, as will Daniel. Jasmine, too, if she so chooses. And you will spend the rest of your days here, with only your memories of what you've lost."

"What about the other kids? And the Mansons and Damon Gray?"

"Oh, I haven't forgotten them." Vlad moved out of Jack's view, and the door slid shut. When Vlad next spoke, it sounded like it was coming from the same direction as Manson's cell. "I actually have a business proposition for you… Jeremy, is it?"

"A business proposition?" Manson sounded skeptical. "I'm not accustomed to doing business with a ghost. Or from inside a prison cell."

"We can fix that second one soon enough. You see, because of my little ill-timed revelation during the asteroid crisis last summer, I find myself unable to access all my considerable assets and holdings. Oh, I've managed to scrape by on a meager million or two that I'd squirreled away in a Swiss bank account, but I find myself in the unaccustomed position of having to seek financial backers in my bid to take over the world. I understand that you were the richest man in Amity Park before I moved in. Perhaps I could interest you in making an investment?"

The sniff of disdain from Manson's cell was loud enough Jack could have heard it across three counties. "I don't think so. I may have supported your anti-ghost policies when you were mayor, but I don't think I'm all that interested in backing a tin-can despot."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I give you the impression that you had a choice? My mistake. Let me clarify things for you. Your financial support doesn't just buy the favor of your future ruler. It buys the life of your wife and your daughter."

"What have you done with them?" Now Manson sounded _ticked_.

Vlad, on the other hand, still sounded conversational. "Oh, they're quite safe. For now. But I know investment decisions can't be made in haste, so I'll leave you to think about it, while I attend to other business. I'll be back later for your answer. And to taunt Jack with my new bride… and son."

"I mean it, Vlad. Leave them alone! All of them!"

"Oh, there's that rash anger coupled with an empty threat! It's so entertaining. Always the class clown, eh, Jack?" There was a sudden flare of bright green light through the tiny cell window, and then green smoke filtered in, not just through the bars in the window, but through the walls themselves. Only when the smoke started to form a more definite shape inside the cell did Jack realize what he was seeing—Vlad, in his new ghost form, was phasing through the wall. He flew across the cell to hover over Jack, tall and imposing. "Make no mistake, you ignorant oaf. I have always been cleverer and much, much more powerful than you. And that was before I was… gifted with these new powers. Now, I am unstoppable. So save your empty threats. They're even more useless than you are."

Before Jack could respond, he was gone.

After a moment, Manson asked, "Is he gone."

"Yep."

"I don't suppose you have a plan for stopping him?"

Jack grimaced. "Getting out of these shackles would be a start. And getting our weapons back. You don't still have the Fenton Phaser, by any chance?"

"Mayor Masters is insane, not stupid," Manson shot back. "Of course I don't have the… whatever you call it. Ray gun thing. He obviously took it when he… did whatever he did to get us here. Any other bright ideas?"

Jack's brow furrowed as he tried to remember everything Danny had told him about the Ghost Zone. "Hold the phone. You should be able to just walk through the walls."

"Walk through the walls? Have you completely lost your mind, Fenton? I'm not a ghost!"

"But this is the Ghost Zone, which means everything is solid to ghosts, but intangible to us. So how come I can't get out of these binders, and the wall behind me feels so solid?"

"How should I know?"

"And Vladdy used the door in human form, but phased through the wall in his ghost form… There must be some sort of anti-human shield here. But he said we're the first humans held here, meaning this place was originally built for ghosts."

"Are you going somewhere with all this babbling, Fenton?"

"Yeah, I am. Vladdy obviously set up this place to imprison humans—us—which is why he couldn't phase through the walls in human form. But it's in the Ghost Zone, and designed for containing ghosts, which means he shouldn't have been able to phase through the walls in ghost form, either. But he did."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning he's not a ghost."

There was a brief pause before Manson exploded. "You _have_ lost your mind! Of course he's a ghost!"

"No. He used to be a ghost, but that ectoranium asteroid did something to him. It changed him. And ectoranium is an _anti_-ghost element." Jack's eyes widened. "Vladdy's some sort of anti-ghost!"

"What the heck is an anti-ghost?"

"I'm not really sure. But I don't think regular ecto-weapons are gonna work against him. We're gonna need to come up with something different. Something that counters _anti_-ecto energy."

"Uh… isn't that a double negative? Something that is anti-_anti_-ecto energy would be… ecto energy, wouldn't it?"

"No. If that were the case, then ghosts wouldn't have a problem touching ectoranium. But they do. So if ectoranium neutralizes ghosts, then what neutralizes ectoranium?"

"This is all very interesting… and by interesting, I mean duller than dirt. But how will it help us get out of here?"

"It won't, but it will help us defeat him once we do get out of here."

"Well, do you think we can back up a step first? The creep just threatened my wife and daughter. I'd like to get out of here and find them, if you don't mind. And you might recall that _your_ wife and daughter are here as well."

Jack clenched his jaw. And his son. And he didn't even want to think about what Vlad would do to any of them.


	32. Chapter 32

**Thirty-two**

_**Observants' Observatory #5  
The Ghost Zone**_

"You know, normally I'm totally into stargazing, but this is getting a little old. Not to mention the fact that there are no stars in the Ghost Zone."

Jazz frowned, looking up at Sam, who was seated in front of the large telescope that dominated the small observatory-like building they were trapped inside. "Must you always be so negative?"

"You're right, Jazz. I really should be more cheerful after getting attacked by Danny's jerky future self who shouldn't even exist, trapped in some sort of ghost force field by the new and not-so-improved Vlad hopped up on ectoranium, transported to some freaky observatory in the Ghost Zone via a time warp from Clockwork's stolen staff, locked up with the Queen of Pep behind a ghost shield that works on humans, too, and left with nothing to do but look through a telescope out into the Ghost Zone while Danny, Tucker, Valerie, and all our parents are God knows where. Can you ever forgive me for my lack of enthusiasm?"

Jazz sighed. "I'm just saying, the sarcasm isn't going to do us any good."

"But it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

"Just tell me if anything looks familiar."

Sam turned around to face her. "I already did tell you, Jazz. Nothing looks familiar. I have no idea where we are."

"But you've been to the Ghost Zone with Danny a million times. You must know it inside and out."

"Do you have any idea how huge the Ghost Zone is? They don't call it the _Infinite_ Realms for nothing."

Jazz cocked her head. "They call it the Infinite Realms?"

Sam gave her a _duh_ look and turned back to the telescope.

Jazz sighed again. It was hard sometimes, being the newbie of the group, especially when the leader was her own younger brother. While he no longer tried to avoid her helping, and even readily included her when she wasn't away at school, it still was clear to her that she'd never catch up to Tucker and Sam in sheer amounts of knowledge they'd accumulated in the nearly two years they were at Danny's side before she was truly welcomed into the fold. "Listen, I get that you know more about this stuff than I do, okay? That's why I thought you might recognize where we are."

Grunting, Sam pushed away from the telescope again. "I'm more concerned about where_ Danny_ is. And Tuck, and Val, and our parents. I don't like the way Vlad split us up."

"Divide and conquer." Jazz nodded. "We definitely need to get out of here and find everyone."

"So let's forget the stupid telescope and try to find a way out. There must be some way to get past whatever Vlad has set up to keep humans in. You said he did this to you and Danny before? How'd you get out then?"

"We blew up the Ecto-Skeleton."

Sam crossed her arms, scowling. "Unfortunately, we're sorta fresh out of combustibles, since Vlad took our weapons. The only thing I still have on me is the Fenton Phone, and it's not working."

"Mine, neither. And even with regular weapons, we couldn't create the kind of explosion the Ecto-Skeleton made. We're going to need some other way of bringing down that shield."

"You could try saying 'please.'"

Jazz spun around at the new voice, and Sam jumped down to land beside her as a massive green form phased into the room—weren't ghosts supposed to be unable to phase through things in the Ghost Zone?—then with a bright flash, he turned into Vlad's human form. Jazz was surprised how… the _same_ he looked in human form. After the weirdness of his new ectoranium-powered ghost form, she'd pretty much assumed that anything human left in him had been burned away.

"Where's Danny?" Sam demanded.

Vlad's lip curled. "Which one? The one you claim to be your boyfriend, or the one with whom you've been seen all over the internet?"

Jazz interceded before Sam could respond. "Uncle Vlad… is all this really necessary? I'm sure if you and my mom and Danny all sit down and talk it over—"

"Oh, so it's 'Uncle Vlad' again?" Vlad crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow at her. "What happened to 'Fruit Loop'?"

"I'm just saying—"

"Yes, I know what you're saying, and please spare me your Freshman Psych 101. I've been out-psyching opponents since before you were born."

Sam sneered. "Oh, yeah. You put the 'psycho' in 'psychology,' that's for sure."

Ignoring Sam, Jazz crossed her arms, mirroring Vlad's pose, and tried a new tactic. "Where are we, Vlad?"

"We're in the Ghost Zone."

"Thank you, Joe Obvious." Sam put her hands on her hips. "You wanna be a little more specific?"

He favored her with an oily smile. "But of course. This place we're in, it's called Observatory Summit. It used to belong to a race of ghosts known as the Observants."

"I know who the Observants are."

To Jazz, however, the term was only vaguely familiar. She didn't want to reveal her ignorance in front of Vlad, however, so she didn't say anything.

Fortunately, Vlad liked to think he knew more than everyone else around him, and loved to hear himself talk. "Then you know they keep an eye on ghost activity in the Human World. Or, at least, they used to."

Sam either missed or was ignoring what the last sentence implied. "The voyeurs of the Ghost Zone; I know." She narrowed her eyes at him. "You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?"

He snorted. "Please, don't flatter yourself that you are of any interest to me. I merely needed something to distract young Daniel and keep his mind off the goings-on in the Ghost Zone while I carried out my attack on the Observants. And what a shock! It worked." He rolled his eyes. "Teenagers and their hormones and their dramas. How very predictable."

Jazz winced, but Sam didn't take the bait. "You used the Observants' stuff to record us, didn't you?" She indicated the telescope behind her with a jerk of her head.

"Something like that." His lips curled into a slippery grin, and then he turned his attention to Jazz. "The Observants' gear is really quite impressive. I should give you a demonstration. The telescopes are really only half the story, you see, and they're a little different than the ones you find in the Human World. Oh, they gather images, much like ours do, and then the images are stored and processed in these." Stepping past them, he pressed button on the side of the telescope and a huge, grotesque, disembodied eyeball rose up out of the floor. Jazz grimaced—yet another bit of Ghost Zone weirdness to which she had yet to become accustomed, although it didn't seem to faze Sam. Vlad waved his hand, and an image appeared on the screen. Jazz leaned in closer, and saw what looked like a really high-quality video of their encounter with Vlad in the park. He was in that weird, green ghost form, with the rest of them trapped behind those force fields.

_We're all a little… overwrought right now, _the onscreen Vlad was saying._ What we need, I think—_he pulled out the strange purple staff with the stopwatch on top and pushed down on it—_is a little time out_.

Jazz frowned. "I thought this is supposed to show what the telescope sees. This already happened."

Vlad waved his hand again, and the image paused. "I told you, Jasmine. These telescopes don't work like human telescopes. The Observants can view the past, present, or future. It's all at their command. Or more correctly, it's now all at _my_ command."

"Then I want to see Danny."

Something darkened behind his eyes. "I'm sure you do. I… I want you to understand, my dear. I didn't want it to happen like this, you know. I always thought of Daniel as the son I never had."

Sam cocked her head. "You didn't want what to happen like this?"

Jazz also felt a twinge of uneasiness, but she shook it off. "You can cut the drama anytime."

"If only it were just a matter of dramatics. I hate to have to do this to you, Jasmine. Despite your betrayal two years ago—after _you_ came to _me_, I should remind you—I still think of you as something of a surrogate daughter. You…" He gave her a sad smile, and reached out as if to touch her. "You look so much like your mother."

"Eww!" Jazz took a step back. "You stay away from me, you psychotic freak!"

His expression hardened. "Well, then. Have it your way. I was hoping to soften the blow for you, but—"

"Where is my brother, Vlad?"

He smirked at her. "It must be hard for a smart, independent young woman like yourself to always have to look to her little brother to save her."

Jazz snorted. "Please. Now who's resorting to Psych 101? I'm perfectly comfortable with my relationship with Danny. Yes, he can do things I can't, but I have skills he doesn't, too. And I protect him just as much as he protects me."

Vlad's eyebrows both went up, and he cocked his head. "Really? Then I'm afraid you haven't done a very good job, have you?"

Sam took a step forward. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"See for yourself." Vlad waved his hand at the weird eyeball screen thing, and the image started moving once more. Then, with a flash of bright green light, he morphed into his new ghost form and phased back through the wall of the observatory.

"So not interested in whatever he wants us to watch on this thing. I don't trust him," Sam said.

"Duh. But we need to know where Danny is."

The two of them turned to the video, which now showed Vlad using that purple staff to open some sort of blue portal. With his green ectoplasm—or whatever it was now—he sent all of his captives in through the portal, until only Danny and Valerie remained, still locked inside their force field and frozen in time. Then, he punched the top of the staff. _Time in_.

Danny and Valerie both blinked, then looked around. Danny growled and banged on Valerie's shield inside of Vlad's force field. _What just happened? Where is everyone?_

They're safe, Daniel. I just wanted to take a moment to talk to you. And Valerie, too, as long as she's here.

Valerie looked no happier than Danny. _I've got nothing to say to you. I listened to your lies for almost two years. I'm done listening._

_I'm giving you both an opportunity. You fight ghosts when they've become a problem here in the Human World, and you send them back to the Ghost Zone. Why keep up this endless cycle, when you can go to the source? The Ghost Zone is chaos, but if we were to bring order—_

_I think I've heard this speech before._ Danny shook his head._ If you say we can rule the galaxy as father and son, I think I'm gonna hurl._

_We both know you're not my son, Daniel. But you're mistaken if you think you're your father's son. The man is an oaf. You have the potential to be so much more._

_I'm not buying anything you're selling, Vlad. Just tell me what you did with my friends and family._

_They're somewhere safe, where they won't get in my way._

Valerie put her hands on her hips._ That's okay, they won't have to. 'Cause _I'm_ gonna get in your way._

_I think you overestimate your abilities as a ghost hunter, my dear._

_Or maybe you underestimate her backup. _Danny turned to Valerie._ Now, Val!_

She punched some buttons on her wrist, and her shield disappeared, but before the anti-ghost properties of Vlad's force field could affect Danny, he shot ice out of both hands and his eyes. There were bursts of electricity, and Danny cried out in pain, but he kept the burst of ice going. Jazz bit her lip, hating to watch Danny suffer like that, and Sam was clenching her fists so hard, Jazz was sure her palms would start bleeding. On the screen, Danny poured more and more energy into the streams of ice, and Valerie added to it with her own weapons, until the ectoranium force field finally gave way in a massive explosion.

Vlad backed up. _Daniel! Valerie! Stop! You do not want to fight me!_

Valerie flew at him. _You wanna bet?_

She and Danny attacked together, and Jazz was impressed with what a cohesive unit they made. But she was worried. They already knew Vlad survived this skirmish relatively unscathed, and certainly not inside a Fenton Thermos. Which only left the question: what happened to Danny and Valerie? Jazz glanced at Sam. "This isn't going to end well."

Sam was frowning at the screen. "I—" And then she gasped, and Jazz turned her full attention back to the screen in time to see Vlad nail Danny with a bolt of his weird, green energy. Danny was knocked back against Valerie, who flew off her sled at the impact. She recovered quickly, recalling her sled, and the two of them tried to go after Vlad again, but he kept at them, pouring that ectoranium energy into them.

_Stay back! I will not allow you to destroy me, or my plans! Do you understand?_

But they kept trying to fight back, and Jazz's eyes widened in horror as she remembered what had happened to the evil future not-Danny when Vlad had attacked him with the same ferocity. Clasping her hands together by her mouth, she whispered into them. "Oh, my God."

Beside her, Sam was paralyzed. "No," she breathed. "He can't…"

Valerie fell first. She sunk to her knees on her sled, and then collapsed face forward, and the whole thing crashed to the ground, and the suit and sled disappeared, leaving her lying in her street clothes, looking bruised and battered.

Danny was worse. It looked as if the green energy was blasting away bits and pieces of him, like a high-powered hose trained on a chalk drawing on the sidewalk. Her father's voice filtered into her head: _molecule by molecule…_ But Danny was howling in rage—or was it pain?—at Valerie's fall, and he renewed his efforts to get at Vlad.

_Daniel, stop! Don't make me do this!_

"No, this isn't real, it can't be real…" Sam was intoning, like a ritual prayer, and Jazz wanted to join her, but the words stuck in her throat.

And then, it was too late. With a final burst of green, her brother dissolved away into vapor, and he was gone.


	33. Chapter 33

**Thirty-three**

_**Observants' Observatory #2  
The Ghost Zone**_

"Okay, why don't you try it now?"

Tucker cursored though a few screens on his PDA until he got to the uplink menu, then clicked on OVERRIDE. He waited a minute, then shot a hopeful look towards the large telescope that dominated the room. "Anything?"

Mr. Gray came out from behind the telescope and wiped an arm across his forehead. "Nope. Didn't work. But we're on the right track, I think. We just need to find the right combination of one of your programs and the ghost technology in this telescope, and we should be able to generate enough feedback to create a hole in the shield. Here, let me try something else." And he disappeared back behind the telescope.

_Well, if I have to get locked up in some weird Observatory in the Ghost Zone, at least it was with a fellow techno-geek_, Tucker thought, although it was weird to think of Valerie's dad that way. It was easy to see why Axion had brought him back into one of their top IT positions even after the disastrous ghost-dog security breach that lost him his original contract with them.

After finding themselves here, when only moments before they'd been in Amity Park watching a souped-up Vlad rant about how Mr. Fenton had ruined his life, it hadn't taken them long to figure out they were in the Ghost Zone, and that there was some sort of shield or force field preventing them from phasing through the walls. After several scans with Tucker's PDA, they'd located the power source, which was somewhere above them. The problem was, it was unreachable from where they were, so they couldn't shut down the entire shielding system. They were, however, able to come up with a plan. Using Tucker's various anti-ghost programs on his PDA and the ghost technology in the telescope, they hoped to disrupt the shielding long enough to escape the room. Once free, they could get to the main power source, shut down the shield completely, and then track down at least some of the others. Between Danny's ecto-signature, the Fenton Phones, Vlad's listening device that Valerie was still wearing buried somewhere under her suit, and the various devices the Fentons had installed in their jumpsuits, Tucker had already managed to locate everyone except Sam's parents. They were all scattered around what seemed to be a mountain full of observatories. Tucker and Mr. Gray were pretty close to the top, Mrs. Fenton was maybe one or two levels down, Sam and Jazz a few levels below that, Danny and Valerie—at least he thought it was Valerie; the signal from Vlad's bug was glitchy, probably due to interference from her suit—were at the base of the mountain, and Mr. Fenton seemed to be _under_ it.

Mr. Gray's voice, slightly muffled, drifted out from behind the scope. "This ghost technology sure is hard to figure out. Although, believe it or not, I think spending time with Jack working on his Ops center actually helps some of this make sense. Who knew Fenton-logic and ghost-logic were compatible? No wonder he's obsessed with the suckers." There were some more generalized muttering, and then he called out, "Okay, Tucker. Try the Purple Back Gorilla interface again."

"You got it, Mr. G." Tucker tapped in a new command. "Here goes nothing."

"Here goes nothing, indeed."

Tucker whirled around just as a green beam of energy hit his PDA. Yelping in surprise—not to mention pain from the blast—Tucker dropped the PDA, and it clattered to the floor, a melted and blackened mess. Mr. Gray bolted out from behind the telescope. "What the—" He skidded to a stop when he saw the green mass of anti-ghost matter that was Vlad towering over Tucker.

"Uh… we've got company," Tucker said, somewhat unnecessarily.

With a green flash of light, Vlad morphed from his strange new ghost form into a human form that was surprisingly the same as it had always been. "Oh, I'm sorry, you weren't planning on using that to try and escape, were you? And here I've gone to such lengths to extend my best hospitality. Well, the Observants' best hospitality, anyway. Now that this all is mine, I really should redecorate. It could use a few Packers memorabilia to liven up the place, don't you think?"

Tucker looked around him. "This place belonged to the Observants? What did you do to them?"

"That really isn't any of your concern." Vlad then looked past Tucker to where Mr. Gray was standing. "Damon Gray. It's been a while since we've met in person. The Pariah Dark crisis, if I'm not mistaken?" His tone was conversational, as if they'd bumped into each other at the company picnic. When Mr. Gray's only response was to cross his arms and glower, Vlad continued. "You'd think that between my takeover of Axion Labs, not to mention my long and quite fruitful association with your daughter, that we'd—"

Mr. Gray cut him off with a growl. "Just what do you have to do with my daughter?"

"He's the one who gave Valerie the first suit," Tucker answered, then glared at Vlad. "She was the original Masters' Blaster, wasn't she?"

"He _what_?" Mr. Gray looked he was going to tear Vlad apart with his bare hands—and considering he was a fairly large, muscular man and a former marine to boot, Tucker had high hopes he could do it. His fists clenched in barely contained rage, he glared at Vlad. "Where do you come off giving that kind of weaponry to a fourteen-year-old girl?"

Vlad shrugged. "Who better? She was like a gift from the heavens. Where else could I find someone with such a perfect combination of high-level martial arts skills, understanding of advanced technology, and pure, obsessive hatred for Danny Phantom? She really was the perfect pawn."

A roar of anger was all the warning Vlad got as Mr. Gray threw himself at him. But it was enough. Without even switching back to ghost form first, Vlad created a green shield between himself and Mr. Gray. It crackled with energy when the ex-marine rammed into it. Grunting at the impact, he fell backwards onto the floor.

"Mr. Gray!" Tucker knelt down beside him. "You okay?"

The older man rubbed his head, and he looked a little singed. "Yeah, just give me a sec. That thing really packs a wallop. I thought that stuff only affected ghosts."

"Oh, you'd be surprised what I can do with my new powers. The ectoranium base makes them especially deadly to ghosts, yes, but I am perfectly capable of destroying humans." Vlad let his shield dissipate.

"What do you want, Vlad?" Tucker asked, getting to his feet to face him.

Vlad looked at Tucker as if noticing him for the first time. "Ah, His Honor the Mayor! Exploiting a loophole in the law and the reflected glory of your closest friend to get yourself appointed my successor. I can't decide if I'm impressed by your ingenuity, or appalled by the stupidity of the City Council."

"At least I didn't have to overshadow an entire city of voters to get into office."

"No, you only had seven out of twelve City Council members to convince, and you did that by banking on someone else's fame. What a ringing endorsement for your own qualifications. And let's not forget that you're not even old enough to vote on any measures you might send to the ballot."

"Yet somehow, my approval rating is higher than yours ever was the entire time you were in office." Tucker crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow at Vlad. "Must be tough, being a worse mayor than a sixteen-year-old kid."

Vlad's gaze hardened, and he eyed Tucker a moment. "I wonder what it will do to your approval rating when Amity Park is taken over by an army of ghosts while its mayor is nowhere to be found?"

Tucker barked out a derisive laugh. "You're kidding me, right? Didn't we already do this whole thing with Pariah Dark? And since when do you have an army of ghosts?" He looked around him as if searching the room. "I don't see any lying around."

"Foolish child. I have destroyed Clockwork, and I've taken over the Observants' domain. Do you really think the ghosts will oppose me?"

"Uh… _yeah_. The ghosts don't take too well to being bossed around. Or maybe you haven't noticed."

"Some of the ghosts, perhaps. But others—the smart ones—will see the opportunity I am presenting. They will side with me, and we will take the Human World. And the few who resist—do you really think they'll care what happens in our world? They won't fight any further than the Ghost Zone."

Tucker shook his head. "You really are a slow learner, aren't you? Danny has stopped you every single time you've tried some lame take-over-the-world thing. And you may not have noticed while you were busy up in space being asteroid food and all, but even the ghosts that hate Danny recognize him as a link between their world and ours. And they respect him. He'll have them rallying to defeat you. Just wait."

Without warning, Vlad burst out laughing. "Oh, that's just precious. 'You won't get away with this, you dastardly villain! Danny Phantom will save us!' You're like Lois Lane, or the damsel in distress in every B movie ever made, only not as useful. And if having the Ghost Boy in your pocket is your entire platform, you'd best think up a new one by the next election. You're going to need it. But I'll let you see for yourself." He stepped over to the telescope and hit a button in the side that Tucker and Mr. Gray had somehow missed. A huge eyeball-looking thing popped out of the floor, and an image began playing where the iris should have been. Mr. Gray flinched when he saw it, but Tucker's mind was already whirring. _More ghost tech. Maybe I can use that to make the feedback loop instead of the telescope…_

Vlad turned to Mr. Gray. "And my apologies to you, Damon. Valerie really was quite the good little ghost hunter… until she outlived her usefulness as a foil against Daniel. But I really didn't mean for things to end quite like this."

Mr. Gray was on his feet again in an instant. "What's that supposed to mean?" But before the words were even all out of his mouth, Vlad had changed back to ghost form and phased out through the walls.

"What is this thing?" Mr. Gray asked, indicating the eyeball-like monitor. "This looks like a video from back in the park."

Tucker inspected the thing without paying much attention to the image on the screen. "Some sort of monitor, from the looks of it. Clockwork had something similar. If this place belonged to the Observants, like Vlad said, then they probably used the telescopes and these monitors to, you know… observe stuff. But I'm more interested in the tech. I'll bet we can use this to generate our feedback loop."

"But he fried your PDA."

"Please. If there's anything I've learned in the years I've played sidekick to Danny Phantom, it's to always carry a backup PDA. And a few backups for my backup." Digging into one of the deep pockets of his cargo pants, he pulled out another handheld. "Now who's less useful than Lois Lane…?"

"Wait. This is how we got here. Look."

Tucker looked up and finally paid attention to the image on the monitor. It showed Vlad in ghost form in the park, surrounded by the rest of them in their green force fields. There was a blue portal-looking thing swirling over his shoulder, and he used his ghost ray to guide all of them through it except for Danny and Valerie. "He must've stopped time with Clockwork's staff. But I've never seen a ghost portal that looks like that before."

"He used the staff to make that, too," Mr. Gray said.

On the screen, Vlad pushed the top of his staff, starting time again. Danny and Valerie looked confused for a moment, but then Danny realized everyone else was gone and demanded to know where they were. Vlad told him they were safe, then made his typical Vlad-esque promises of world domination with Danny at his side, blah blah blah. Tucker turned his attention back to the mechanics behind the monitor until the sound of an onscreen explosion drew him back to the video. Danny and Val had somehow broken out of the force field and were starting to attack Vlad.

_Daniel! Valerie! Stop! You do not want to fight me!_

_You wanna bet?_ That was Valerie. Tucker couldn't help but grin; she was quite the spitfire.

Mr. Gray, however, seemed less than pleased. "If this happened right when he started time again, and Vlad was just here, then that means they didn't beat him."

Tucker frowned, paying more attention to the screen. "You're right."

Then, it happened. A blast of Vlad's ghost ray sent Danny flying into Valerie, knocking her off her sled. She recalled it, and she and Danny went after Vlad, but he was completely overpowering them with his ectoranium powers. _Stay back! I will not allow you to destroy me, or my plans! Do you understand?_

It wasn't until Valerie fell that it hit home to Tucker exactly how serious this was. Mr. Gray gasped as her sled crashed and then disappeared, along with her suit, leaving Valerie looking vulnerable and horribly battered in her street clothes. "Valerie, no!"

Now Vlad's entire focus was on Danny, and fear started to squeeze Tucker's heart as he remembered what had happened to the evil future Danny under a similar assault.

_Daniel, stop! Don't make me do this!_

But Danny didn't stop, and neither did Vlad, and before Tucker could even cry out, his friend had disappeared like smoke into the night sky.


	34. Chapter 34

**Thirty-four**

_**Observants' High Council Chamber  
The Ghost Zone**_

Danny and Valerie sat in stunned silence on the floor of the large chamber, although Danny hardly knew where he was. Everything after watching everyone he loved fall was a blur. His dad, his sister, Tucker, Sam… Everyone but his mother and Valerie, gone.

He'd refused to believe it at first. They couldn't be… he couldn't even think the word. They were hurt, yes, but they would wake up. They had to wake up. But he and Valerie had watched more of the video, praying for some sign, anything that would show they were okay. A jogger had come by and called 911. And then there had been police, and an ambulance. When they pulled the sheets over everyone's heads, Danny had blasted the weird eyeball monitor with his ghost ray.

At some point, he'd realized Valerie was no longer on her sled, but was sitting on the floor, her knees tucked up to her chin and her arms wrapped around her shins. He landed beside her, but he couldn't bring himself to comfort her. He was in too much pain himself to reach out to anyone. So he sat a little distance from her, his face buried in his hand, as he tried to figure out what to do next.

He had to strategize, he knew. They were still locked up in the Ghost Zone, and Vlad was still out there somewhere. There was also his mother and Mrs. Manson, who were presumably still alive, and he didn't even want to think about what Vlad would have in store for his mom. Actually, he_ couldn't_ think about it. He tried to, tried to keep his mind on the living, his mother and Valerie, who still needed him. But only the faces of the… of Mr. Gray and Mr. Manson, his father, his sister, and his two best friends floated before him.

Faces of the dead.

There, he'd thought it. The dead.

_Oh, God. No!_ It was overwhelming. He'd almost lost them once before, but Clockwork had stopped everything just at the moment he thought he'd failed them. He hadn't had time for the impact of what it would mean to lose them all to really sink in, and Lord knows he certainly hadn't dwelt on it afterwards.

What was the last thing he'd said to any of them? Suddenly, it became very important to remember every detail of the last moments he'd spent with these people he loved.

His father, trying to focus Vlad's attention on himself, and taking the blame for leaving Vlad behind in space. Before that, the fight with Phantom, which was just a mishmash of instructions shouted back and forth as they all worked together. Before that… dinner. His mom had made his dad's favorite pot roast, and had chided him for pouring too much gravy over everything. After dinner, he'd disappeared up into the Ops Center with Mr. Gray, but Danny had barely noticed. Had he even said good-bye? He didn't think so. He'd been in a hurry to leave with Valerie, and Jazz.

Jazz. She'd left dinner before him and Val, on her way to meet with Amorpho and distract the Guys in White. He'd done little more than wave good-bye to her. Had he thanked her for the help she was giving him? He couldn't remember. When he next saw her, she was blasting his future self with the Fenton Bazooka. _Nobody messes with my little brother_. She'd always been protecting him, for as long as he could remember. Often, it annoyed him, but he always knew she had his back. Hell, she'd had his back even before he knew it. Had he thanked her for that? Then, Phantom had grabbed her, and she'd kicked him off of her, and the last real interaction Danny had had with her was when he blasted her free of that ecto-coil and tumbled with her to the ground.

_You okay?_

_I'm good. Let's just nail the bastard and go home!_

She would've been at home if it hadn't been for him.

Tucker, too. He was only there that night because of him. They hadn't had much interaction with each other during the fight. There was no need. Two years of fighting ghosts together, and he and Tucker could team up without saying a word. Danny didn't even have to think about it, really. He just fought the ghosts and counted on Tucker being behind him, either with a Fenton Thermos, or using his PDA to bring down whoever they were fighting. Tucker knew how he moved, how he thought, and he didn't have to be told what to do to help most of the time.

And that was only the ghost fighting. Never mind how he had Danny's back as a friend. There were too many ways and times Tucker had been there for him even to begin to sort through. Their last conversation before the fight with his future self had been on the front steps of Fenton Works after dinner. Tucker had met them there before he and Valerie headed over to the Mansons' house and Danny to the park. Tucker had put a hand on Danny's shoulder. _Don't worry, dude. You'll be laughing about this in a week, I promise. And twenty years from now, it'll be a story to tell your kids. Like that TV show. Only instead of it being "How I Met Your Mother," it'll be "How I Cheated On Myself With Your Mother."_ Typical Tucker, mocking him even while he offered support. Except…

Danny swallowed. There would be no twenty years from now. Not for Tucker, and not for Sam.

_Sam._

What had been the last thing he'd said to Sam? Or that she'd said to him? He thought back to the last words he'd heard from her—that he'd ever hear from her. _It was _you_! You posted that stupid video!_ They'd been addressed to Vlad, though. Not him. Before that, there had been just general battle stuff. Like Tucker, he and Sam just clicked when they fought ghosts. She knew him as well as Tucker did. Probably better than he knew himself. And before that, the thing with her parents. Had his last words to her really been a crack about her parents being Bonnie and Clyde?

His last words to her. He felt like he was dying inside, so he tried to push that thought away by remembering more. What had they said to each other before that? He'd sent her off to protect her parents when his future self had attacked, and before that…

Before that, she'd said she was in love with him. _I'm in love with Danny Fenton, okay?_ Only, he didn't know if she'd really meant it. Had she just gotten carried away with the act, or did she really feel that way about him? He would never know. And even worse, she would never know if he felt that way about _her_. He'd never told her… never even said the words to himself, let alone to her. And now, he'd never have the chance.

He scrubbed his face with his hands, trying to keep himself from screaming. How could she be _gone_? How could any of them be gone? Sam, Tucker, Jazz, his father, Sam's father, Valerie's father…

_Valerie._

He looked up, finally remembering he wasn't alone. Valerie was still sitting completely still, her arms wrapped around her legs. She hadn't even bothered to take off her helmet.

"Val?"

She looked up at him and, through the red-tinted glass of her faceplate, her expression was blank, despite the streaks of tears. It scared him. _She's all I have left. Her and my mom._ His mom. He tried to find his voice, to keep it from cracking the way it was threatening to. "We… we have to get out of here and find my mom and Mrs. Manson." Oh, God. What would he say to Mrs. Manson? Her husband and daughter gone, and it was all his fault…

"We have to find_ Vlad_." Valerie's voice was like ice.

Danny felt ice in the pit of his stomach as well. Colder than anything his ice powers had ever produced. "Yeah, we do. And we're gonna make him pay for what he did."

He saw a fire light behind her eyes, and it was like his words had brought her back. "Oh, yeah. He's a dead man. Or ghost. Or whatever. I don't care. He's going down."

"You'd better believe it." Now, the ice in his gut was giving way to fire, and it felt good. It burned away all the guilt, the loss, the things left unsaid that could never, ever be said. Now there was only fire, and rage, and he could focus it all in once place, on the one person—the one thing that had caused all the loss and pain in the first place. "Plasmius is—"

"I'm what, Daniel?"

Danny and Valerie were both up and in fighting stance, Val's jet sled back beneath her feet, before either one of them had even located the source of the voice. Then, Danny saw him, a thick green mist oozing in through the walls. _But how can he phase through the walls if there's a shield blocking both ghosts and humans?_

The question hadn't even completely formed in his mind before Valerie spotted him. "You're history, that's what!" As he solidified, she attacked, a bazooka mounted on her left arm blazing pink ecto-energy.

It didn't do much good. He swatted away the laser fire as if it were a few annoying flies, and then he blasted back with his new powers. But Danny was faster. He got between Vlad and Valerie and put up a shield. Ectoranium energy met ectoplasm, and Danny's shield crumbled, allowing the electric shock of the ectoranium to pour over him. But then, Valerie was there, countering with a shield from her left arm, and a rain of energy darts from under her sled.

Free from the assault, Danny shook off the painful tingle in his limbs and dove in again, following up Valerie's energy darts with a steady stream from his hands, only this time he used his ice powers instead of ectoplasm. That seemed to have an effect, and Vlad was temporarily immobilized behind a sheet of ice. Valerie then joined in, pumping a massive ray of pink ectoplasm from her arm-mounted bazooka into the frozen Vlad. There was a bright explosion, and Danny thought they'd gotten him, but there was green mixed in with the pink and blue energy and, as the aftershock knocked Danny backwards, jolting him with another lightning-like blast, he realized that Vlad had used his ectoranium ray to free himself. Danny got up another shield, this time using ice instead of ectoplasm, and he was able to protect himself from the anti-ghost energy.

"The ice powers work better than ectoplasm!" he shouted at Valerie.

"Well, that's nice for you, but what am I supposed to do?"

Vlad aimed another blast of ectoranium at both of them, which Danny again blocked with an ice shield, but as it had in the park, they found themselves trapped inside an energy field, immobilized. Danny fell to his knees in agony until Valerie put up a barrier between him and the ectoranium force field.

"Daniel! Valerie! Stop! You do not want to fight me!"

Valerie fairly snarled at him. "You wanna bet?"

"You've crossed over the line, Plasmius! No way you're walking out of here after killing everyone we love. You're a dead man—ghost. Thing. Whatever."

They moved together, in perfect union, as if they were dancers in a ballet that had been painstakingly choreographed. Danny concentrated on his ice powers, first using it to break them out of the energy field Vlad had trapped them inside, and then as an offensive weapon. Valerie supplemented the attack with various weapons of her own, seeming to know exactly when the ice had weakened Vlad to the point where her ectoplasm could have an effect. It was a massive onslaught, and little by little, Vlad was forced to retreat. When it looked like he might phase back out through the walls again, Danny coated the entire room with ice to prevent his escape.

Finally, the sheer magnitude of the attack was too much for him. He collapsed to the floor, a giant green cloud that quickly lost any form. Then, there was a brilliant flash of green light, and Danny had to shield his eyes.

Valerie crowed in cheerless triumph. "We got him!"

But when Danny could open his eyes again, he found that Vlad had not been destroyed. Instead, he was slumped on the ground.

In human form.

Danny gasped. "H-he's still human? But I thought…"

Valerie pulled up on her sled beside him. "He was never human." Her voice was still sheer ice.

Danny blinked, trying to figure out what to do next. He had to contain him somehow, and find a way to quickly get him back to the Human World before he regained consciousness and could fight them off again. A problem, that, since they still hadn't figured out how to get out of here. If his ice powers had some effect against Vlad's ectoranium ones, then maybe if he worked at the shield long enough, they would break that, too? But first… He sent another blast of ice at Vlad, encasing him in it. "Okay. That should hold him while we figure out how to get out of here."

"It only needs to hold him long enough for me to get a good shot in." Valerie raised her arm, aiming her most deadly weapon, her arm-mounted ecto bazooka. There was a whine of turbines as the weapon powered up.

Danny grabbed her arm, pulling her off target just as the shot went off. It went wild, bouncing off the domed ceiling. "Valerie, what are you doing?"

"What am _I_ doing? What are _you_ doing?"

"You can't shoot him with that! You could've killed him!"

"Well, yeah! That's kinda the point!"

Danny gaped at her. "You can't be serious! He's human!"

"I told you, he was never human!"

"Val, come on. He's already been defeated. We just need to figure out how to get out of here, find my mom and Mrs. Manson, and get him back to the Human World—"

"No!" It came out as a snarl, and there was a tremor in her voice from barely controlled rage. "He doesn't get to go back to the Human World! He killed Tucker. And Sam. He killed your father and your sister and Sam's father and my…" Her voice hitched.

Danny tried to focus past the fresh stab of pain her words brought. _Dad. Jazz. Tucker. Sam…_ He wavered, his fury at losing almost everyone that mattered to him threatening to overwhelm him again. He couldn't shut out the image of Sam, falling like a rag doll when Vlad started up time again. It felt like she was invading him, as if she were a ghost overshadowing him and, for a second, it brought hope. _She could be a ghost, and I could still see her in the Ghost Zone!_ But he knew as soon as he had the thought that it was just his own mind trying to bring her to life again, that she deserved better. And yet… her presence was still real, somehow and, with it came a resolve to do what she would have wanted. "I know. And we'll make sure he pays for it. But not like this. We… we don't get to decide who lives and who dies. We're no better than him if we do, and…" He swallowed. "And Sam wouldn't want that. Not for me, and not for you."

She glared at him. "How can you say that? He took everything—_everything_—from us! He doesn't deserve to live!"

"Val, you can't kill another human!"

"Watch me!" She took aim again, but this time she was out of reach, so Danny flew between her and Vlad. She roared in outrage. "Get out of the way, Phantom!"

"No! Valerie, I won't let you do this!"

"I said, get out of the way!"

"No!"

She trained her bazooka at him, and Danny blinked. It'd been months since the last time he'd looked down the barrel of one of Valerie's weapons. Beneath the faceplate of her helmet, her eyes were hard and angry, like they used to be whenever she fought him. "You've got a choice to make. You're either on my side, or you're on his."

"Of course I'm on your side!"

"Then get out of the way. Because if you don't, if you insist on protecting that… that piece of _filth_, then you are _not_ on my side, and you can just consider us enemies again."


	35. Chapter 35

**Thirty-five**

_**The Master Observant's Quarters  
The Ghost Zone**_

Maddie was seated on the floor, her back against the wall that separated her room from Pam Manson's, her knees drawn up in front of her, and her left arm resting across them. Frustrated, she tapped a finger on the scope that was protruding from her left sleeve. Vlad may have gotten all her weapons, but he'd missed a few of her other gadgets, including the GPS system built into it her jumpsuit. Jack's had one as well, and the scope in her arm could track both of them, and Danny's ecto-signature, too.

But only when it was working. She tapped on it again, sighing. "This thing is acting so glitchy. I wonder if the shields are causing some sort of interference." She rapped black-gloved knuckles against the invisible shield that separated her and Pam, creating a blue-green pattern of light where her knuckles made contact. "Maybe if I move away from the walls, I'll get a clear signal." She got up and started walking around the room, checking in various spots to see if she could get a reading on her husband and son.

Pam, who was sitting with her legs curled under her on the other side of the shield, looked up at her. "What makes you think it's the shields? The _G_ in GPS stands for _global_, doesn't it? Are we even _on_ the globe?"

"Technically, no. The Ghost Zone exists in a different dimension from our world, but one that isn't entirely separate, either."

Pam rolled her eyes. "Silly me, expecting a straightforward answer about something related to ghosts."

"And you're right, a regular GPS wouldn't work here," Maddie continued, ignoring the complaint. "But Jack's and my systems have been modified so that even if we can't determine where exactly in the Ghost Zone we are, we can find our positions relative to each other. Ah, here we go! It looks like Jack is about fifteen hundred feet directly below us." She frowned. Jack's signal was coming in fine, but there was still no trace of Danny's ecto-signature.

Pam leveled her an annoyed look. "Do you people have any normal hobbies? Knitting? Stamp Collecting? I'd even take Professional Wrestling."

Maddie bit back her own growing irritation and, taking a deep breath, sat back down on her side of the shielded doorway. "Listen, Pam. I know you and I aren't exactly similar. We don't share any of the same interests, and I doubt we'll ever be best friends. But we do have one very important thing in common—our children. Danny and Sam are very important to each other. Don't you think we should make an effort to try and get along, for their sakes? I mean, I don't think I'm making any great leaps in thinking they're going to be in each other's lives for a very long time to come."

Pam scoffed. "Sam doesn't know _what_ she wants."

Maddie bristled. It was more an indictment of her and Jack than Danny himself, she realized. Was their family really so bad that Pam needed to believe her daughter was just going through some sort of phase? Was she completely oblivious to the way Sam would look at Danny, or he at her? They were young, yes, but Maddie knew her son well enough to know that there was nothing fleeting or transient about what he felt for Sam, and over the past few years, she'd gotten to know Sam pretty well, too. "She's not exactly someone who changes her mind on a whim. I don't think I've ever met someone so decisive and sure of what's important to her."

"I would've said the same thing, until all this business with that… that… _Ghost Boy_ happened. And all over the internet for everyone to see! What you must think of her!"

A mixture of conflicting emotions warred in Maddie as she tried to figure out how to respond to the unexpected outburst. She felt bad for assuming Pam had meant her first statement as a dig at Danny, herself, and Jack, when she really was upset about her own daughter. She felt a renewed defensiveness at what was definitely a dig at 'the Ghost Boy.' She felt guilty that Sam was taking the brunt of the accusations when she really hadn't done anything horribly wrong, and Danny was at least as much to blame as she was. And these were only the new emotions. Underneath it all was the internal struggle she'd been waging with herself ever since she found out her son was half ghost—whether or not his friends' parents had a right to know.

As a mother, she felt it was her duty to share with her fellow parents whatever she knew that affected their children. Considering that these kids were regularly putting themselves in danger, it bothered her greatly to be a party to keeping their parents in the dark. While she and Jack supported their own kids' ghost fighting, and had even encouraged it long before they knew Danny was himself a half-ghost, it really wasn't her place to make that decision for Pam and Jeremy, or for Angela and Maurice Foley, for that matter. Of all Danny's friends, only Valerie's father knew what the kids were really up to, and he wasn't exactly happy about it, although he did seem resigned to it.

But as _Danny's_ mother, her first and most pressing concern was always his long-term safety, and she feared what would happen to him if people like the Mansons knew who and what he was. Certainly Pam's reaction just now, the way she'd curled her lip and called Danny _that Ghost Boy_, did nothing to allay those concerns. And perhaps even more important than that, she and Jack had decided to leave the decision of who and when to tell entirely up to Danny. It was _his_ life, and his secret to keep or share as he chose, and she and Jack had no right to decide for him.

So how could she respond now? How could she walk that fine line between not giving away Danny's secret and not letting Pam continue to think badly of her own daughter because of it? Maddie struggled to find the right words. "I… I think she's sixteen."

Pam gave Maddie that look that every mother of teenagers knew—the weary surrender to the fact that one's child has become a completely incomprehensible alien lifeform. Then, her expression turned more contrite. "Maddie, I… I know Jeremy and I have made it no secret that we don't think Danny and Sam are… the smartest match. But we have not raised our daughter to be someone who betrays another's trust, or to go back on her word. I just… I don't understand where her head is these days. Not that I ever did, but at least she was always true to herself, and to her word… until now."

Maddie sighed, guilt tugging at her heart again. "Pam, she's sixteen. And Danny's sixteen. They're going to make sixteen-year-old mistakes." Never mind that these two particular sixteen-year-olds, along with a couple of other sixteen-year-olds and an eighteen-year-old, regularly shouldered burdens beyond what even most adults carried. She swallowed, feeling like she was digging her own grave with every word. Or worse—like she was digging Danny's grave. And Sam's. And even Tucker's, and Valerie's, and Jazz's. "I… I think the best thing we can do for our kids is to stay out of this and let them sort it out for themselves." When this didn't seem to comfort Pam much, Maddie smiled at her. "And just so you know, I think Sam is a wonderful girl. I love her like she were one of my own."

"Thank you, Maddie." Then, Pam cocked her head. "Can I ask you something, though? How well do you know the Ghost Boy?"

_And the grave gets deeper._ "I… I guess I got to know him in Antarctica."

"And you trust him? Even though he's a ghost, and you've built your whole life around hunting ghosts?"

Chewing her lip, Maddie picked her words very carefully. "I learned a lot in Antarctica, to be honest with you. More than in an entire lifetime of studying ghosts. They are not at all what I thought them to be, and they are not all the same. I'm proud to have worked with a ghost like Danny Phantom, and I would trust him with my life." _Or my son's life. Or your daughter's._

"Then you don't think he would… that he'd use his powers to… control—?"

"No," Maddie cut her off before she could even finish. "He would never do anything to hurt her, not intentionally. I can promise you that."

Pam looked as though she didn't quite know if this was good news or not. "I… hope not. But still, a _ghost_. The behavior is bad enough, but with a ghost, of all…" She let out a huff of exasperation. "I can't even call him _people_. It just makes me crazy!"

And just like that, Maddie's guilt at not sharing everything she knew evaporated. Grinding her teeth to keep from saying something she might regret, she reminded herself that it was no worse than anything she herself had said—repeatedly—about Amity Park's resident teen ghost before she found out that he was her own son. Deciding that a change in subject was the best way to not lose any ground in the tenuous relationship she'd just managed to forge between herself and the woman with whom she someday might very well share grandchildren, Maddie pushed herself up off the floor. "We need to stop worrying about our kids' love lives and go _find_ them. I just wish I knew why I'm not getting Danny… Phantom's ecto-signature. I should be able to—" She stopped and slapped her forehead, scoffing at herself. "The Ecto-flage! He must be wearing it!"

"The what?"

"Uh… just some equipment Jack loaned the Ghost Boy. Once we find Jack, he should be able to recalibrate my scope to pick up on that. But first, we need to get that shield down." She crossed the room to where the eyeball monitor was still on its stalk-like stand in the middle of the floor. "I'm sure I could use the circuitry in this video system to short-circuit the shield long enough to make a hole we can escape through, but I need something incendiary. If only Vlad had left me with any of my weapons. Anything that operates on ecto energy." She turned back to Pam. "I don't suppose you still have that Fenton Blaster you were using in the park?" Then, she frowned. "And where did you get that, by the way?"

"I got it from that odd little flying rocket car thing your daughter was driving. Jeremy and I raided it after Sam ran off to fight that first ghost." She winced. "I… suppose I owe you an apology for that."

Maddie brushed it off with a wave of her hand. "Not at all. You were looking to protect your daughter. And you and Jeremy are actually pretty good shots. You really held your own out there, at least before _Vlad_ showed up and took us all by surprise." She couldn't help but say his name like it was something foul she needed to spit out of her mouth.

"We're both champion skeet shooters. Not that shooting skeet with a regular rifle is anything like firing those weapons of yours. They're very strange."

"But they get the job done. You don't still have one, do you?"

"No. I was still holding it when we were in the park, and then all of a sudden I was in this room, and it was gone."

"Did you take anything else? A Fenton Thermos, the Jack-o-Nine Tails, anything?"

Pam arched an eyebrow at her. "I don't even want to know what any of those things are. But no. The only thing I had from your… vehicle was that handgun. Well, that and a hideous green lipstick that I figured must belong to Sam."

Maddie's eyes widened. "Green lipstick?"

"Mm-hm. God forbid she wear anything that doesn't resemble dead flesh."

"Do you still have it on you?" Maddie crossed back over to the shielded doorway where Pam was still sitting.

"I don't know." She dipped a white-gloved hand into her pocket. "Well, I guess I do." She pulled her hand out, producing a small, white-and-green tube.

A smile blossomed on Maddie's face. "That's not Sam's. It's mine."

Pam frowned. "I know you and I don't exactly have the same taste in… well, _anything_. But I never would've thought of you as wearing such a… _unique_ shade of makeup."

"It's not really makeup. It's the Fenton Utility Weapon. Take the cap off and twist the bottom. But aim it away from yourself."

Looking skeptical, Pam nevertheless followed the instructions, jumping when a bolt of plasma shot out.

"I told you it was a weapon. Now let's see if we can put it to work. We need to cause a small explosion. Shoot at that monitor."

"You mean the horrible disembodied eyeball?"

"Yes, the horrible disembodied eyeball." Maddie stepped out of the way so Pam could aim at it, but the blast was merely absorbed into the shield between the rooms. "Oh, darn it. I forgot that the shield blocks plasma rays as well."

"What now?"

Maddie went back to the door and peered into Pam's room. "I'll bet there's one in your room as well. It seems to be the ghost version of television, and you know how everyone must have a TV in their own room."

"But where would it be?"

"In the floor somewhere, if it's anything like this one. Vlad waved his hand, and the thing just popped up out of the floor."

Pam aimed the Utility Weapon at the floor and fired. She created a nice smoldering hole in the carpet, but nothing else happened. She tried a few more times in different spots around the room, until one shot finally caused a small explosion. Pam shrieked, and then recovered herself. "I think I found it."

"Okay. Now aim a concentrated beam at that same spot," Maddie directed. Pam did so, and the floor started sparking. Maddie pressed her hands against the shield between their doors, leaning against it with all her weight, and then suddenly, she found herself on the floor inside Pam's room. "You did it!"

"I did it!" Pam agreed.

Maddie jumped up. The floor was still sparking where Pam had been shooting at the eyeball monitor buried beneath it. "We should go. Now!" Grabbing Pam's arm, she dashed toward the front door.

"Maddie, the door's still locked!"

"This is the Ghost Zone. If the shield isn't working, then we should be able to—" Without stopping, she ran headlong into the door. There was a sort of weird, tingly feeling, and it felt a little like she'd run into a thick, velvet curtain, and then she was on the other side, with Pam behind her. "—phase through the walls," she finished. She then pulled Pam way from the door just as they heard the monitor explode inside the room.

Pam shook her head. "I hate the Ghost Zone."

Ignoring her, Maddie looked at the scope on her wrist. She could once more see a signal from Jack's jumpsuit several hundred feet below them. "Come on. We need to find an elevator."

"Do ghosts even have elevators? I thought they could just fly through things."

"They can fly, but not through things in the Ghost Zone. I'm hoping they're as lazy as humans are and don't want to fly up and down under their own power all the time. Aha!" As she rounded a corner, she saw a massive grated iron gate. It looked like the door to a freight elevator like the kind that were in those upscale warehouse-turned-loft-apartments in New York City, only this one had a ghoulish pattern of eyeballs adorning the black iron. Maddie found a lever and pulled open the gate. It made a horrible, eerie groan as it opened.

Pam looked leery, but followed her onto the lift. "Oh, yes. I definitely hate the Ghost Zone."


	36. Chapter 36

**Thirty-six**

_**Observants' Observatory #5  
The Ghost Zone**_

Sam stared at the eyeball screen, blinking rapidly, as Jazz cried softly beside her. She heard a sniffle, then felt Jazz's hand on her arm. "Oh, Sam. I can't believe he's…"

"It's not real." She said the words automatically, without even thinking but, as they came out of her mouth, she suddenly felt them with conviction. "It's not real."

"Sam…"

"No. I-it can't be real. It can't." She clenched her fists, her fingernails digging into her palms. "Danny can't be…"

"I know it's hard. I know you… I mean… oh, Sam!" She threw herself around Sam in a hug, but Sam pushed her away.

"No. Don't. You can't grieve. He's still alive."

Jazz sighed, her eyes full of pity Sam didn't want. "Denial isn't going to help."

"It's not denial!" The words came out more forceful than she'd intended. "He can't be dead! He promised!"

"He promised?"

"The ring. He took the ring and promised to give it back, just like in Antarctica. The Fenton Jet crashed, and we all thought he was dead, but he promised, and he wasn't dead. Not then, and not now, because he hasn't given the ring back to me yet, and he promised he would."

Even as she said the words, she knew how ridiculous they were. She didn't need Jazz's gaping stare to tell her it was absolutely insane. The ring wasn't a magic talisman that could ward off the Spirit of Death. It was an ordinary and rather garish undergraduate class ring. University of Wisconsin-Madison, class of 1984. She wasn't superstitious; she didn't believe in good luck charms or old wives' tales. She was a _goth_. She believed in the dark and the morbid, and that life necessarily involved pain and death. She'd even once told Tucker that one of the things that kept her from telling Danny how she felt about him was a fear that once she had him, she would only lose him. And now… hadn't she just said, earlier this same evening, that she was in love with him? Not that it had been direct, or that she couldn't pass it off as getting too involved in the role she'd been playing at the time, if she wanted to pass it off. But the words had been said. They were out there in the universe, so of course this would be the exact moment that he would be taken from her forever.

Except that he promised to bring the ring back. Just like Antarctica, and in Antarctica, he didn't die. The Fenton Jet crashed, but he hadn't been in it. And he wasn't dead now. She knew it with a certainly she couldn't explain and didn't make any sense, not even to her. But Danny was alive. He had to be.

"Sam…"

" I know you think I'm crazy, Jazz, but think about it. _We're_ still alive."

Jazz just blinked at her, confused.

"Danny is, like, the focus of Vlad's whole existence. If he killed him, even by accident, why would he keep us alive? I'm less than nothing to him. The guy won't even bother to call me by name. If he's okay with killing Danny and Valerie, who were his favorite pet projects, why would he keep us alive? Our only value to him at all is as leverage. Something to hang over Danny's head to get him to do what he wants. Without Danny, we have no value at all."

"Sam…" Jazz sighed. "You're forgetting his other favorite pet project: my mother. He can hang us over her head, too."

"You, maybe. But me?"

Jazz gaped at her. "You don't think my mother would care if something happened to you?"

"Of course she would, but Vlad doesn't think like that! Come on, Jazz! You're the psychology major! You know how Vlad's mind works. He doesn't understand humanity or compassion. He only understands possession. In his world, you _belong_ to your mother, so it makes sense that he would see you as leverage to use against her. But me? My only value is in relation to Danny. I'm Danny's friend. Danny's girlfriend. His _possession_. Without him, Vlad has no use for me at all."

Jazz shook her head slowly. "I… I see what you're saying. And you do have a point. But Sam… We saw what happened for ourselves."

"We saw a video. Video can be faked."

"How? And why?"

"To mess with us! You said yourself he was trying to psych you out with all that stuff about needing your little brother to protect you. What could be more demoralizing than losing him completely?"

"And you said our only value was in relationship to Danny. Why bother messing with us? Wouldn't he rather mess with Danny?"

"But you're a_ Fenton_. You're Jack's daughter, which makes you suspect, but you're also Maddie's daughter, which makes you valuable. And, geez, Jazz, you really do look like your mom. The older you get, the more like her you become. Vlad even said so. So he's got all this conflicting stuff with you… does he want to own you or get rid of you? Are you more Maddie or Jack? He doesn't know, so the only thing he can do is mess with you."

The more Sam spoke, the more convinced she became that she was right. Even Jazz seemed to be considering it. She regarded Sam a moment, then closed her eyes and let out a long, slow breath. "I don't know, Sam. It seems so far-fetched. But… God, I hope you're right. I really hope you're right."

"I am right."

She had to be. He'd promised.

* * *

_**Observants' Observatory #2  
The Ghost Zone**_

Tucker felt like time had stopped again, and with it, his brain. He couldn't seem to get it working, to get it to really take in what he'd just seen.

Valerie, dead.

Danny, vaporized.

It was too much to comprehend.

Behind him, Mr. Gray was taking the observatory apart, piece by piece. He'd started with the eyeball monitor, smashing his fist into it and shattering the screen. Oddly, the shards of—glass? some glass-like ghost substance?—didn't cut him. He was somehow able to make contact with the screen, but the broken pieces were intangible to him. Yet another oddity of the Ghost Zone.

After the monitor was demolished, he started in on the telescope. He would yank a piece off of it, then throw it across the room, all the while making more and more violent threats against Vlad, using language that Tucker had never heard an adult use in front of him. But as pieces of telescope and ghost circuitry rained down around him, Tucker sat absolutely still, trying to get his brain functioning again.

Something was wrong.

Well, obviously, if Danny was… if his best friend in the whole world was _gone_, then everything was wrong. But not that kind of wrong. Something just didn't fit. Something at the back of his brain was poking at him, but it couldn't be heard over the screaming in his head from the image of Valerie landing face-first in the grass and Danny being blasted to dust.

Valerie, landing face-first. In the _grass_.

Why was that weird? She was in the park. Parks have grass. Nothing weird there.

She was in the park…

Hold up. Tucker's eyes widened, and he went to pull out his PDA, forgetting for a moment that it was already in his hand. While Mr. Gray hurled another piece of equipment against the wall with a curse that would've made Tucker blush had he been paying closer attention, he thumbed through his programs, calling up the one he used to track things. It came up but wasn't active, and Tucker swore under his breath. This was a different PDA. Vlad had toasted the first one. When did he last sync them up? He couldn't remember. Please let it be here, please let it be here…

With a ping, the program went active. There were two Fenton Phones a few levels below—Jazz and Sam. Further down was that funky signal Mrs. Fenton's jumpsuit gave off—wait. Further down? Hadn't she been the highest one up? He looked at the signal again, and saw that it was rapidly descending. _Mrs. Fenton's on the move. Let's hope she got out and it's not Vlad taking her somewhere._ He shuddered, pushing that thought away as he looked for the other signals. There was Mr. Fenton's, somewhere buried below the mountain. And at its base? Where was Danny's ecto signature?

Tucker swallowed. It wasn't there. There was only a lone Fenton Phone and a whole lot of random ectoplasmic energy, but no ecto-signature. No Danny.

But… it had been there. Here in the complex, not in Amity Park. If Danny had been here, then the video they'd seen couldn't possibly be right. That video showed Vlad starting time again without ever sending Danny and Val into the Ghost Zone. They couldn't possibly have gotten killed in Amity Park if they were in the Ghost Zone.

But that didn't make any sense. This place belonged to the Observants. Their equipment was designed specifically to observe, not create. How could it observe something that wasn't real? And if it wasn't real, if Danny and Val really had been here in the Ghost Zone, where were they now?

He wasn't getting a signal at all. Not Danny's ecto-signature, and not the bug that had been planted on Val. Although… the signal had been glitchy before. The suit! Tucker looked up. "Mr. G.!"

The man in question hurled something—an eyepiece, maybe?—and Tucker ducked, forgetting for a moment that it would have just passed through him anyway. "Mr. G., wait! Stop! I think they might be alive!"

Mr. Gray stopped and stared at Tucker. "What?"

"I don't think that video was real. Remember when I was tracking everyone before? They were all here in the Ghost Zone, Danny and Val included. But that video showed them getting… it showed them still in the park."

Mr. Gray's eyes widened, and he came over to where Tucker was sitting and hunched down to look over his shoulder. "She's alive? You're saying my baby's alive? You can see her on that thing?"

"Actually, I can't find a signal for her at the moment." Tucker winced, hoping that wouldn't send her father into another rage frenzy. "But this is a different PDA, and I didn't calibrate it like the other one. Her suit could be masking it. Plus, there's a hell of a lot of random ectoplasmic energy where they last were, and that could be masking it, too."

"Ectoplasmic energy? Like from that suit or jet sled of hers?"

"Could be. Listen, Mr. G. Have you ever gotten a good look at the suit? Do you know the specs on it?"

"I… no. Not the new one. The old one I'd taken apart and put back together a hundred times before it was destroyed, but not the new one."

Tucker frowned. "But didn't Technus make the new one out of the pieces from the old one?"

A determined look crossed Mr. Gray's features. "Give me that thing."

Tucker handed over the PDA and watched as the older man went to work. After a moment, Mr. Gray sat back, his shoulders sagging in relief. "It's her. She's here. That's definitely her suit." And then he frowned. "But it looks like she's in one hell of a fight, judging by all that ectoplasmic energy." Abruptly, he got up off the floor. "We need to get out of here and find her! Let's get this thing cranking and short-circuit the shield."

Tucker nodded. "I just wish I knew for sure that Danny was okay, too."

"You're not getting a signal from him?"

"Nope. No ecto-signature. Just—" Tucker stopped. "There's a Fenton Phone there! That has to be Danny! He was the only other one wearing one!" But still, the lack of an ecto-signature was troubling. It had been there before, why not now? It couldn't be the new PDA… he knew for sure all his PDAs were properly programmed with the specs for Danny's ecto-signature. Hell, he could do it from memory.

"We don't have time to figure it out now, Tucker. We can use this eyeball monitor thing to generate the feedback we need so we can get out of here and up to that power source and take the whole complex's shields down."


	37. Chapter 37

**Thirty-seven**

_**Observants' High Council Chamber  
The Ghost Zone**_

She came at him hard. In the years that Valerie had considered him the source of all her woes, Danny had been the brunt of her fury—and near-lethal attacks—more times than he cared to remember. But nothing like this. It was like she was coming at him from all sides, and if he dared to try and move to a different vantage point, she would go after Vlad's unconscious form, and he'd be forced to go back in and put up a shield to keep her from wasting him.

"Valerie, stop! I'm not the enemy here!"

"But you're protecting the one who is!"

"Because I'm not going to let you kill him!" He dodged another blast from her sled-mounted ray, and got an ecto-shield up in front of Vlad before she could pound him with her arm-mounted bazooka. While he was distracted, she nailed him with one of those floating box things that she could make hover around her. He hit the wall of the dome, which was still covered with ice from their fight with Vlad, and the impact knocked the wind out of him.

"Now you pay for killing my father!" she cried, taking aim at Vlad once more. Danny forced himself up off the floor even before he properly got his breath back, and flew at her as fast as he could. He managed to knock her off her sled before she could fire, and her shot went wild again, melting through the ice on the domed ceiling, but bouncing off the shield beyond it with a crackle of green and pink energy. The two of them crash-landed, skidding across the main floor of the arena, stopping just short of a broken bench in the seating section around it.

Growling in feral rage, she shoved at him. "Get off of me, Phantom!"

She managed to knock him off her, but he was back before she could get up, and he pinned her shoulders to the floor. "No! Not until you get under control! I'm not going to let you destroy yourself, Valerie!"

"I'm not looking to destroy myself! I'm looking to destroy the man who killed my father! And your father! And your sister and Tucker and Sam! How can you defend him?"

"I'm not defending him! I'm keeping you from doing something you'll regret for the rest of your life!"

"Letting that son of a bitch live is the only thing I'll regret for the rest of my life." With a twist of her body, she got an arm free and blasted Danny with something that knocked him back a hundred feet across the room. It took a second for him to realize it was a ghost net. Fortunately, it was only resistant to ecto-energy, not ice energy, and with a massive blast of cold, the net exploded off of him and he was free. He got an ecto-shield up around Vlad just before she nailed him with pink, flying razor disks.

Roaring in frustration, she wheeled on Danny again. "I swear to God, Phantom, I will blast you out of your afterlife if you don't stop defending him right now!"

"Would you listen to yourself, Valerie? I'm not 'Phantom,' I'm _Danny_. Your _friend_. You would honestly kill your friend just to get revenge on that piece of sewage?"

"If you were really my friend, you'd help me!"

"I am helping you!" She flew at him, and he went intangible, letting her soar through him. This time, instead of taking the opportunity to attack Vlad again, she wheeled around for another go at him, but he flew under her and grabbed onto her sled, making it intangible as well. With the sled gone under her feet, she plummeted to the ground, a good thirty feet below them. Danny let go of the sled and dove after her, grabbing her before she hit the floor.

"Let go of me!" She pummeled him with her fists.

"No! I want you to listen to me for five seconds!" He landed, shoving her back against the wall, then blasted her with an ice ray to freeze her to it. "Now are you ready to listen?"

She struggled to break herself out of the ice. "I'm gonna kill you!"

"And then what? Kill me, kill Vlad… what will that get you? Your father, my father, our friends… they'll all still be dead. And you'll be left with nothing but your own anger and bitterness. What has that ever gotten you, Valerie? Two years of holding a grudge against me, and what did it get you?"

"That was different! I was wrong about you! I'm not wrong about Vlad! He's_ evil_!"

"Yeah, he is. He is a sick, twisted, pathetic son of a bitch. Which is why he isn't worth you losing yourself over. It wasn't what your grudge against Danny Phantom did to _me_ that was the problem, Val. It was what it did to _you_. You think killing Vlad will solve everything, but your grudge won't die with him. It'll only get worse, until it eats you alive and you become what you hate. And I'm not gonna let you do this to yourself, Valerie."

"What makes you think you can tell me who I am?"

"I can't, but I can tell you who _I_ am. Or who I became—or would have become—when I let grief and bitterness control me and rob me of my humanity. That thing in the park… not Vlad, but the other thing. The alternate future me. Do you know how I became him?"

"I don't really give a damn! I just want Vlad to pay for what he's done!"

"You need to give a damn, because you're doing the same thing I did that made me him. I… I lost everyone in that alternate timeline, and I couldn't deal with my grief, so I went to Vlad. _Vlad_. Who I can't stand. For the longest time after I found out about that, I couldn't figure out why I would go to him of all people. But now I know. I went to him, not to get rid of the pain, but to_ hang onto it_. Because I'd seen him do it. For twenty years, he hung onto his anger at my dad and his obsession with my mom. I told him I wanted him to rip out my human side so I wouldn't feel the pain anymore, but I—_this_ me in _this_ time—know now it was a lie. Losing my humanity could never ease the pain. It could only burn it into me forever. And the opposite is true, too. Hanging onto the pain, and the anger, and the need for revenge, you can't have that and keep your humanity. I did it in the reverse order, but the result is the same. Anger alive and well, humanity gone. And I'm not gonna let you do that to yourself, Valerie. I'm not gonna let you become something you hate just to give you a few seconds of pain relief. I don't give a damn about Vlad. I hope he rots in hell for what he's done. But I will not lose you!"

"Why do you care?"

He gaped at her. "Because you're all I have left! You and my mom, you're all…" It hit him then. Harder than she'd hit him with any of her weapons. They were gone. His father. Jazz. Tucker. Sam. Gone. He sunk to his knees, overwhelmed by the pain as tears began to flow. "Oh, God, they're gone. I couldn't protect them, and now they're gone."

"At least you have your mom," she said, her voice as wracked with pain as his own. "I have nothing, Danny. _Nothing_. My dad was all I had, and that bastard took him from me!"

He looked up, wiping his eyes with the back of his arm. "You're wrong, Valerie. You have _me_."

She collapsed, boneless, into heaving sobs, the ice the only thing holding her up. Danny shot a ray of plasma, cracking the ice and releasing her, and scooped her into his arms. They fell against each other, both overcome by their mutual loss.

A staccato clapping sound echoed across the chamber from behind, and they both wheeled around to find Vlad, conscious and free of the ice Danny had used to bind him, walking towards them, clapping. "Bravo! Bravo! What a performance! Why, it nearly moved me to tears."

Danny was up off the ground in an instant, and he threw himself into Vlad as hard and fast as he could. They both flew across the room, crashing against the huge double doors on the opposite side, then landed in a heap on the floor. Danny kept Vlad's shoulders pinned the wall, his face just inches away from the man he loathed with every cell in his body. "Just because I won't let her kill you in cold blood, Plasmius, doesn't mean I'll let you get away with what you did. You're coming back to Amity Park, and you're gonna pay for everything you've done. My dad, Sam, Jazz, Tucker, Valerie's dad, Mr. Manson. And not just them. The whole world's gonna be out for blood after what you tried to do with the asteroid. You're gonna rot in jail or fry in the electric chair. I don't care, and it's not my decision to make. But you're not gonna get away with everything you've done."

He laughed, a brittle, mirthless sound. "You don't honestly think you can beat me, do you, Daniel?"

"I already have."

"_We_ already have."

Danny looked over his shoulder, and Valerie was there, aiming her bazooka.

"Val…"

"It's okay, Danny. I'm not gonna kill him. Unless he gives me a reason to, like fighting back or trying to escape." She still looked deadly, but the wild, uncontrolled rage was gone, replaced by something a little more human.

Danny nodded, then turned back to Vlad. "I want to know where my mother is. You're gonna take us to her now, and then we're all going back to the Human World and to the police."

He laughed again. "Oh, Daniel, you're hilarious! You really believe you can win so easily? When will you ever learn? The only way you can ever beat me easily is if I _let_ you. So you might want to ask yourself, why would I let you win?"

"This isn't twenty questions, Plasmius. Tell me where my mother is!" He banged Vlad back against the wall for emphasis.

"I'll answer your question only after you answer mine. Why do you think I would let you win?"

"I don't know. Because you're a sick bastard who likes messing with me."

"And?"

"And…" Danny's eyes widened. "You wanted to see what I'd do when I had you down. If I would kill you while you were defenseless."

"Very good! A little slow, perhaps, but at least you're not entirely your idiot father's son."

The reminder of his father brought a fresh stab of grief, and Danny knocked Vlad against the wall again. "I passed your little test, so you can forget about turning me into you. _Now tell me where my mother is_!"

"I'd start talking if I were you, Vlad. You may have noticed that I'm not as reluctant as Danny is to take you out if I have to."

"Please. You're even less capable than he is of actually defeating me. And you didn't pass my test, Daniel. You _failed_. Not only are you weak, you've _exposed_ your weakness, and I will not hesitate to use it against you."

"Doing what's right even when it isn't what you want isn't a weakness, Vlad. Hanging onto your anger and hate for over twenty years, that's a weakness. My mom was right. You're pathetic. And I'm not gonna be anything like you. Ever."

"What I am is the most powerful being in this world or in ours. The Ghost Zone is very nearly mine, and the Human World will be, too. If you are choosing to not be like me, then you are choosing defeat and failure. I had hoped you would chose to be the powerful ghost hybrid I know you can be, but time and time again, you choose weakness and failure. You think you defeated me? You've defeated but a small portion of me. The next time we battle, it will be with all of me. And I will not hesitate to do what you could not. I will not hesitate to remove you as a threat. Permanently."

Before Danny could even summon a response, Vlad evaporated beneath his grasp in a burst of green vapor, and was gone.

* * *

_**Observants' Control Tower  
The Ghost Zone**_

Tucker had never seen anything that was so simultaneously amazing and completely creepy in his life. The place where they had traced the power source for the shield was the top of a huge tower-like observatory that sat atop the highest peak of the mountain. Inside was some sort of control room, but unlike any Tucker had ever seen before. There were rows and rows of those gruesome eyeballs rising up from the floor on those optic-nerve-like stands. They were packed together so tightly that it almost gave the impression of a gigantic fly with its hundreds of eyes all watching him, only these eyes were all showing different images from around the Human World. Tucker whistled. "It's like Ghost Mission Control."

"It's pretty impressive," Mr. Gray agreed. "In a really disturbing way. But we're not here to check out the tech. We're here to take out the shield."

"Right." Tucker consulted his handheld. "It's somewhere in the middle of all this."

They started walking through the maze of eyeball screens, finally coming to an open area in the very center of the room. It was a sunken section, with three steps leading down into it, and from within, they could see a large number of the monitors. "This must be where the operators control everything."

"And that looks like the shield generator." Mr. Gray pointed out a boxy-looking contraption that looked like something straight out of Fenton Works.

But something else caught Tucker's eye. "Hold up. Is that what I think it is?"

"What?"

Tucker walked over to a monitor in the middle of the sunken area, but unlike the others, it wasn't a giant, bloodshot eyeball. Instead, it looked like a humongous gear.

From a clock.

"Dude! This doesn't belong to the Observants. This is Clockwork's!"

"Who?"

"Clockwork! He's the Master of Time. Vlad took him out a few days ago. But this place is full of monitors that can watch anything in the world. Why would he want Clockwork's viewscreen here?" He knelt down to examine the base, where wires snaked out from it. "It looks like he's hooked it into the system. Why would he do that? Unless—"

"We got more important things to worry about right now, Tucker. Let's take down this shield and go find Valerie and everyone else."

"Okay." Tucker got up off the floor. "But I wanna check something out before we go searching for the others. If this thing does what I think it does, then I know how Vlad faked their deaths on that video."

* * *

_**Observants' High Council Chamber  
The Ghost Zone**_

Danny rammed his fist into the ice-covered doors where he'd had Vlad pinned only moments before. "Dammit! He was playing us the whole time!"

"I don't get it. If he was faking being weak enough for us to win, why not stay and finish us off?"

"He wasn't faking. He just wasn't all here."

Valerie put her hands on her hips. "That guy hasn't been all there from the getgo."

"No. I mean… You know how I can duplicate myself? I learned that from Vlad. Only he's got, like, twenty years more experience than me. He can make a whole bunch of copies of himself, and they don't have to be close together like mine do. Remember that thing with my cousin, Dani? How Vlad Masters was locked in the closet while Vlad Plasmius was fighting us? That was just him duplicating himself."

"So what we just fought was a duplicate?"

"Right. And duplicates aren't full strength. If they get defeated, it only takes out some of the strength of the whole, rather than destroying the whole thing. He was never in any danger at all. If you would've killed him, you would've thought you were committing murder, but it would've been more like… knocking the wind out of the whole Vlad."

Valerie shook her head. "So it was just a test. To see what we'd do when we thought we had the upper hand. Bastard."

"Yeah."

"So, what do we do now?"

"We gotta find a way out of here and find my mom and stop whatever it is he's planning to do."

"Okay, but we've already tried getting out of here and haven't had much success."

"Perhaps I can help with that," a deep and somewhat sanctimonious voice interrupted.

Danny whirled around, his heart leaping at the familiar voice. "Clockwork!"


	38. Chapter 38

**Thirty-eight**

_**Observants' High Council Chamber  
The Ghost Zone**_

Danny stared in disbelief at the purple-cloaked ghost, with his blue face, glowing red eyes, black scar that traveled from his forehead, across his left eye, and down his cheek, and the clock and pendulum built into his chest. Right now, he looked like a gaunt old man, with a white beard that flowed from his chin past his tunic and almost as long as his cloak, but before Danny could even get out anything beyond his name, the odd ghost morphed before his eyes, becoming a brawny, clean-shaven young man.

Blinking, Danny shook his head to try to get his brain working again. "Y-you're alive! But how? And where have you been all this time?"

"When Plasmius destroyed my Clock Tower, he nearly destroyed me as well, but I managed to escape through the time stream. Without my Time Staff, however, I couldn't get back again. I was trapped between times, until he finally used the Staff, opening up a pathway back to the present."

"When he brought us here?"

"No. That was the second time. I believe he also used it to get _to_ you. You see, when he destroyed my Tower, he inadvertently set free your future self from the Thermos where he'd been imprisoned."

"Yeah, I kinda got that part." Danny crossed his arms. "You might've mentioned to me that he was still alive. I thought he didn't exist after I changed my—his—whatever—past."

"What you assume is not my problem." Clockwork morphed again, this time into something resembling a bratty kindergartener with buckteeth. "From what I've been able to piece together, Plasmius re-imprisoned the evil Phantom in his ectoranium force field, but Phantom was able to escape. Naturally, he went after you, which Plasmius saw as an invasion of his territory, and he used the Time Staff to try and get to you first. But yes, he did then use it again to bring you all here. In any regard, I was able to return to the present when he used the Staff, and I came here, to my employers. Of course, it was already too late."

"But how did all that happen? You see everything. How did you not see that he would do this, and stop it?"

"He is unlike any being I have ever encountered, either in the Ghost Zone or the Human world. He is still half human, but his ghost half is no longer truly a ghost. Whatever that collision with the ectoranium asteroid did to him, his new abilities are able to… cloud my vision, as it were. I'm unable to view him, either in the present or the future. I also cannot cross his ectoranium force field, or I would have come looking for you as soon as he brought you here."

"Then how'd you get here just now?"

"The force field is gone."

"Vlad took it down? Why would he do that?"

"He didn't. Come, and I'll show you." Clockwork morphed back into the wrinkled and bent old man.

"Hold up." Valerie held her hands up, gesturing for them to wait. "You wanna let the girl who hasn't spent the better part of two years running all over the Ghost Zone catch up?" She looked at Danny. "This is the ghost from the clock tower?"

Danny nodded. "Clockwork, this is—"

"Valerie Gray, the ghost hunter." Clockwork inclined his head toward her as he changed from old to young man.

"Er, right." Danny rubbed the back of his neck, feeling sheepish. "You see everything. Master of—" He stopped short, as the impact of who—and what—Clockwork was hit him. "_Time_. You're the Master of _Time_!"

The blue-faced ghost rolled his eyes. "No."

"But you don't know what happened! You said yourself you can't see what Vlad's doing. He killed everyone, Clockwork. My dad, my sister, Tucker, Sam, Valerie's dad, Sam's dad…"

"What I said was, I can't view him in the present or the future. I can see the past. I know exactly what Vlad has—and has not—done."

"Then you can take us back in time and stop it!"

Valerie grasped onto Danny's arm. "Are you for real? He can fix the past?"

"The past doesn't need fixing." Clockwork crossed his arms as he morphed into child form. "It's the future we need to fix."

"You helped me before, Clockwork. I would've lost them all if you hadn't stopped it. I… I can't lose them all again. Please."

He shook his head. "Why do you insist on learning the same lessons over and over again? You do not want to change the past. Everything is as it should be."

"Everything is _not _as it should be! Everything is completely _screwed_! Everyone I love—_everyone_, except Valerie and my mother—is _dead_! How can that possibly be 'as it should be'?"

"Do you think you are the first person to ever face tragedy and ask how this can be? Do you ever ask why when things are going your way? No. You just want everything to work out well for you and the people you love. But life is messy. Tragedy and suffering are a part of it, just as joy and celebration are. They all weave together into the tapestry of experiences that make us who we are. The only thing you can control is what you do with that tapestry."

"I don't need one of your sermons, Clockwork! I need my family! I need Sam!"

"Please, Mr. Clockwork, sir." Valerie approached him, wringing her hands. "If you can save my daddy…"

His expression softened as he transformed back to an old man. He put a hand on her shoulder. "You have faced loss before."

She nodded. "My mother died when I was a kid. Breast cancer."

"Then you know better than anyone—you need to fix your problems in the present, not the past."

She closed her eyes. "I just want my daddy."

"Everything is as it should be, child. Trust me." He looked to Danny, his expression hardening once more. "Come. See what your present is before you decide if you want to change the past."

With a wave of his hand, he opened a blue portal much like the ones Vlad had opened on the video, then ushered them both through.

* * *

_**Observants' Control Tower  
The Ghost Zone**_

When they exited the time portal, they were in some other part of the Observants' realm, judging by the hundreds of eyeball viewscreens that were packed in tight rows. It looked like Mission Control at NASA. Danny tried not to stare as he gazed around him. "Where are we?"

"The Observants' Control Tower. This is where they control all the telescopes that monitor the Human World."

"What are we doing here?"

"Finding out if your past is something you really want to change." Clockwork motioned with his hand, directing Danny where to go.

Valerie and Danny looked at each other, frowning, then both shrugged and started walking through the rows of monitors until they came to the center of the room. Danny froze, not daring to believe his eyes, but Valerie let out a gasp. "Daddy?"

Tucker and Valerie's dad were standing in a sunken area in the center of the room, their attention fixed on a monitor in front of them. When Valerie cried out, they both looked up, a matching set of relieved grins spreading across their faces. Mr. Gray was almost glowing at the sight of his daughter. "Valerie! You are okay!"

"I knew it!" Tucker beamed. "I knew you were still alive, even if I couldn't read your ecto-signature—"

He was cut off when Valerie pushed past him and threw herself into her father's arms. "Daddy, is it really you? I thought… we saw… oh, my God, I can't believe you're alive!"

Danny felt like his legs had disappeared, like they did when he was flying, but finally he was able to get them moving and, in three huge steps, he was down into the room and had wrapped his arms around his best friend in a huge bear hug. "Dude, I have never been so happy to see anyone in my life!"

"No doubt." Tucker returned the hug. "Vlad showed us some video of him wasting the two of you, but I found a signal from Val's suit on my PDA, and we knew he must've faked it." They hugged a moment longer, and then Tucker coughed. "Dude. You're kinda strangling me here."

"Sorry, Tuck." Danny let go of his friend. "I just… damn." Danny wiped an arm across his leaky eyes. "We thought—"

He was cut off when Valerie, who had just disentangled herself form her father, tackled Tucker next. "Oh, Tuck! I'm so glad you're okay!"

Danny almost laughed out loud at the expression on Tucker's face, which went from surprise to sheer ecstasy in a matter of seconds. Danny glanced up at Clockwork. "Thank you, Clockwork. Although… you could've just told us they were alive instead of giving us the whole stupid speech about tragedy and the tapestry of life."

"And miss a teaching moment?" Clockwork smirked at him. "But don't thank me. I didn't make your present what it is. I merely brought you here to see it."

Mr. Gray coughed at Tucker and Valerie. "That's enough now."

Tucker hastily let go of his daughter, who was openly crying behind her helmet. She sniffed, trying to get a reign on her emotions. "I don't understand. We saw Vlad kill you with those funky new ghost powers. What the heck is going on here?"

"He's messing with us," Tucker replied. "He did the same thing to me and your dad. Showed us this video on one of those creepy eyeballs of you two getting wasted back in the park. We thought it was real, too, until I realized I'd been tracking you on my PDA here in the Ghost Zone. Except I couldn't get your ecto-signature, Danny, so we weren't a hundred percent sure you were okay. I can't figure out—" And then his eyes settled around Danny's midsection, and he slapped his forehead. "Oh, duh! You've been wearing that Ecto-flage belt your dad invented!"

"Right. I turned it on to see if it would mask my ghost signature enough to get through whatever shield Vlad had up."

"Yeah, we took care of that. The shield I mean. Shut it down. We were just getting ready to look for you guys."

"You shut down the shield! Then that's how Clockwork was able to get through to us and bring us here!"

"Clockwork?" Tucker's eyes widened. "Clockwork is here?" Obviously, he had missed their interchange while he was enjoying being smothered by Valerie.

"Yeah, he's right—" Danny stopped and looked around, but the Time Master was nowhere to be seen. "Hey, where'd he go? He was here a second ago."

Tucker shrugged. "Maybe he went to get everyone else."

"Everyone…" Danny's eyes widened. "That's right! If the video was fake, and you guys are alive, then Sam must be—"

"You thought Sam was killed, too?"

"We thought everyone was killed," Valerie said. "Everyone but us and Danny's mom and Mrs. Manson."

"Tuck." Danny's heart was pounding. "Do you know what really happed? Are they all…?"

"I'm getting signals from both your parents' jumpsuits, and two sets of Fenton Phones besides yours. Now, I can't be a hundred percent certain, but I'm pretty sure the Fenton Phones are Sam and Jazz."

Danny grabbed his friend by the face and pulled him forward to plant a giant kiss on his forehead. Tucker jerked back, his face scrunched in disgust. "Hey! Save it for Sam, will ya?" He scrubbed his forehead with his hand.

"Oh, I will. Don't worry." Danny never felt so happy in his life. They were alive! All of them! His dad, Jazz, Sam. _Sam is alive!_ "Now how do we find her?"

"Well, let's see where those Fenton Phones are showing up." Tucker looked at his PDA, and then frowned. "Wait. They're not there? Where'd they go?"

Danny's heart stopped in his chest. "What? What do you mean they're not there?"

"They were right there, the last time I looked, and now they're… oh, wait. I see them." His brow creased further. "But that would mean—"

"Danny? Oh, my God, is that really you?"

Danny turned around to see his sister standing at the top of the steps leading down to the control area where he, Valerie, Tucker, and Mr. Gray were gathered. Clockwork was floating above her, And behind them…

Sam.

His eyes locked on hers, but it was Jazz who rushed down the steps, pulling him into a tight embrace. "Oh, Danny, you really are alive! And Valerie, too! We thought…"

Danny looked over her shoulder at Sam, who was standing completely immobile. He closed his eyes, relief flooding every cell in his body as he squeezed his sister. "I know. We thought, too. Vlad's been messing with all of us."

Jazz pulled back enough to look at him, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "Sam knew. I don't know how she knew, but she knew you were still alive. She said it wasn't real, and she was right."

Danny looked past Jazz once more. "Sam?" Her expression was one of quiet happiness, as if all was right with the world, and she only just now was realizing she'd known it all along.

Jazz let go and moved on to pull Valerie into a hug. "You, too, Valerie. I'm so glad you're okay!"

And then, Sam's paralysis broke, and she was in Danny's arms, not hugging him like Jazz, but kissing him, her lips pressing hard on his with the desperation of a drowning woman who had just found oxygen. He pulled her closer, melting against her, forgetting his sister, his friends, Mr. Gray… Nothing mattered but Sam, and the fact that she was alive, and here, and—

"SAMANTHA ASHLEY MANSON!"

They flew apart as if zapped with an electric wire, their eyes meeting briefly in horror as they both realized the source of the voice.

Sam's mother.

And Sam had once again been kissing Danny Phantom.


	39. Chapter 39

**Thirty-nine**

_**Observants' Control Tower  
The Ghost Zone**_

With a groan of deep frustration, Sam threw her head back, but it shot up again when Tucker sputtered, "Your middle name is _Ashley_?"

"Not now, Tucker," she ground out through clenched teeth.

Danny caught sight of Clockwork and shot him an accusatory look. "You're the Master of Time. You never heard of _timing_?"

Clockwork shrugged. "I didn't bring them. They found this place on their own."

_They?_ Cringing, Danny looked over toward the steps that led out of the center control area and saw that Sam's father was there as well, his face a shade of red that Danny was pretty sure he'd never seen on a human before. Had Mr. Manson still been holding the Fenton Phaser he'd had back in the park, Danny would have feared for his life. As it was, he took a step away from Sam, hoping the man's color would at least return to something resembling a normal flesh tone.

Then, her mother launched into a shrill tirade, stomping down the steps towards them. Sam started shouting in response, her father screeched back at _that_, and it pretty much degenerated from there, while everyone else looked uncomfortably at their feet. Danny wanted to say something to defend Sam, but Jazz slipped up beside him and put a restraining hand on his shoulder. Just as Mr. Gray looked like he was debating whether or not to intervene, two more voices could be heard over the din.

"What's all the shouting, Thurston? You spot a ghost?"

"Pam, Jeremy? Is everything all—" Danny's mother skidded into view on the steps above them, his father right behind her. "Oh! You found the kids!"

"Mo…issus Fenton!" Danny caught himself quickly. "And… Mr. Fenton!" The relief at seeing his parents—his mom away from Vlad and his dad _alive_—washed away the embarrassment from being caught by Sam's.

Oblivious to the argument she'd interrupted, Danny's mother flew down the steps, pushed past Mr. and Mrs. Manson, and gathered Danny, Jazz, and Sam simultaneously into one embrace. "Kids! I'm so glad you're all safe!" After a moment, she released them and went for Tucker and Valerie as well, almost strangling them in the process.

"I…" Danny looked at his mom as she let go of Tuck and Val and, in the silence left in the wake of the Mansons' argument, the impact of everything that had happened since they left for the park a million years ago hit him. "This is all my fault. I am so sorry."

Mr. Manson glared at him. "You got that right, Ghost!"

Sam looked ready to start the fight anew, but Danny's dad got there first. "Now, wait just a minute, Manson—"

"Jack, let me handle this." Maddie gave Mr. Manson a sharp look. "There is no one to blame here but Vlad, and we're all going to have to stick together if we want to get out of this alive."

Danny shook his head. "Vlad may have set this up, but I'm the one who walked right into the trap, and I sucked you all into it with me. Every single person here was in that park tonight because of what I did."

"It wasn't just you," Sam said quietly.

"But that video that got us into this mess? That _was_ for me. It was nothing but a stupid distraction to keep me from doing what I was supposed to be doing. And I fell for it! I reacted to every single button he pushed, and I let him completely sidetrack me from finding out who had attacked Clockwork. If I would've been more concerned with what was going on in the Ghost Zone instead of what the idiots at Casper High were saying about me, and about Sam, I would've—"

His mother grabbed him by the shoulders, hunching down slightly the way she always did when she wanted to be at eye level with him. "You stop right there and listen to me. Now, I know that statue in front of City Hall has you holding up the whole world in your hand, but that does not mean you have to live your whole life carrying that kind of weight. You are sixteen, and you have the right to _be_ sixteen, and to have sixteen-year-old concerns." She looked to Sam, and the others as well. "That goes for all of you. I think it's wonderful that you care so much about fighting for what's right, and that you each have found a way in which you are uniquely qualified to make this world a better place. But you are allowed to have lives, and everyday cares and concerns. You are allowed to think and act like teenagers, and to care about the things teenagers care about. Don't ever think you have to put aside living your lives in order to take on the burden of the whole world. Do you understand me? Not any of you."

Jack nodded in agreement. "Your… Mrs. Fenton is right," he said, and Danny winced, annoyed by the fact that they all had to keep catching themselves in front of the Mansons.

But when his father put a hand on Danny's shoulder and squeezed it, he was suddenly so happy he hadn't lost him that, for that instant, nothing else mattered. Letting out a long breath of air, he met his parents' eyes and nodded. "Thanks."

Then, Mr. Manson killed the moment by not-so-subtly pulling Sam away from them and back against him. "Uh… that was a lovely sentiment and all," he said in a surprisingly hushed voice, "but has anyone noticed that there's a ghost in here? Uh… besides the Ghost Boy, I mean."

Danny started—why hadn't his Ghost Sense hadn't gone off?—and his parents tensed, but then he saw the ghost in question hovering by the stairs, and he chuckled. "Uh, yeah. That would be Clockwork. He's one of the good guys."

"Clockwork?" Danny's mom asked. "The Time Ghost?"

"Master of Time would be the official title." Clockwork, currently in his young man form, floated down closer to them.

Jack's face lit up. "You're the ghost with the zippity keen medallions! You just gotta tell me how those babies work!"

Clockwork narrowed his red eyes. "I don't think so." He changed to child form, and all of the adults jumped. Jazz looked a little skittish, too.

Danny nearly started laughing again. "Yeah, the morphing thing. He kinda does that. You'll get used to it." Then, he grew serious. "Okay. We need to get everyone out of here before Vlad starts wondering where all his prisoners are."

"We have a little time yet." Clockwork smirked. "No pun intended. I've been watching him."

Danny's eyes widened. "You said you couldn't watch him."

"You really need to listen more. I said I couldn't _view_ him in the present or future. I am certainly capable of _observing_ him directly. He split himself into at least five different duplicates after he arrived here; one for each pair of you that he brought back with him and imprisoned in the various buildings around the complex."

"So he'll need to recharge," Danny said. When most everyone else looked confused, he elaborated. "It takes a lot of energy to maintain duplicate forms, especially if they're not in the same location. Not only is each version at a fraction of the strength, after coming back together, you gotta recoup your energy."

Clockwork nodded. "It seems to be an even bigger problem for him after the mutation caused by the impact with the ectoranium asteroid. The ectoranium powers make him nearly invincible against ghosts and even humans, but they require an enormous amount of energy to maintain. Right now, he'll be gearing up for battle. Recharging, as the Ghost Child so eloquently put it."

Danny considered this. Now would be the perfect time to hit him, while he wasn't at full strength. But only he and Valerie had any weapons. If he remembered correctly from the one time he'd been to see the Observants before, their domain was a long way from the Fenton Portal. He and Valerie could probably make it back, but without the Specter Speeder, it was too far for the rest of them. Frostbite's Realm wasn't far, but even that would be impossible for eight humans to reach without help, and he and Valerie couldn't possibly transport all of them. "Clockwork, can you take everyone back to the Human World through your Time Portal?"

The Time Master shook his head. "Without my Time Staff, I can only travel short distances within the Ghost Zone. I will be needing it back sooner rather than later, by the way."

"Do you know where it is?"

"Plasmius keeps it with him at all times."

Danny frowned. "He didn't have it when we saw him."

"You saw only one duplicate, remember? Trust me. Even when it seems as if he doesn't have it, he does."

"You're talking about the rod with the clock on it that he used to send us all here, right?" Mr. Gray asked.

Danny nodded. "Yeah, that's it." He looked at Clockwork. "How much can he do with that thing? Can he open up portals anywhere in time, like you can? 'Cause that's a big problem if he can." Danny didn't even want to begin to think of the ways in which Vlad could muck up the past and ruin their present.

"No. Only I have complete access to the time stream. With the Staff, he can stop time for short periods, and during such a time break, he can open portals and travel from one point in space to another, but not through the time stream itself. And now that the Window in Time is back under my control, he won't even be able to do that much. The Staff must channel the Window's power to open a portal."

"Window in Time?" Danny frowned. "What's that?"

Clockwork indicated the monitor behind them that Tucker and Mr. Gray had been looking at when Danny and Valerie had first arrived. It was only then that Danny realized that unlike the other eyeball-shaped monitors they'd seen, this one looked like the cog of a clock. "Your viewscreen! It's here?"

"Yeah," Tucker answered for Clockwork. "And that's what Vlad used to fake us out."

"What?"

"Mr. Gray and I were checking it out before you all showed up, and there're, like, fourteen different versions of what happened after he froze time in the park on here. One where all of us but you and Val get sent here, and you guys get killed. One where everybody _but_ you, Val, Mrs. Fenton, and Mrs. Manson get killed. One where only Mr. Fenton gets killed. A bunch where nobody gets killed, but with lots of different versions of… uh… places he's got Mr. Fenton. And so on. And then he's got this system wired into the Observants' whole complex. So he shows me and Mr. Gray the one where you and Val get wasted because he wants us to think stopping him is hopeless."

"He showed us the same one," Jazz said, indicating herself and Sam.

"While he shows me and Val the one where everyone else dies as some kind of sick test to see what we'd do if we were that angry." Danny shook his head.

"That would also explain why I saw a video of Jack and Jeremy in one of the observatories, but we found them in some sort of cell block," his mom said. "But that doesn't explain _how _he made all these separate videos of us. That doesn't seem to be what a Time Master's device would do. Wouldn't it need to show an accurate past, present, and future?"

Danny's eyes widened as he figured it out. "No. The Observants' stuff would be straight-forward like that, because they only see one timeline, like a parade, right?" He looked at Clockwork, who gave him a small nod of approval. "But Clockwork sees all the potential times. 'All the twists and turns it might—or might not—take.'"


	40. Chapter 40

**Forty**

_**Observants' Control Tower  
The Ghost Zone**_

"You _can _listen." Clockwork morphed to old man. "I'm impressed."

"So what we saw in those eyeball monitors were all _potential_ pasts. The way things could have gone if different choices had been made." Danny frowned as a horrible thought occurred to him. "Does that mean that somewhere in some other reality, those things actually happened? That Val and I are dead? Or everyone else is, and we're the only ones left?"

"A good question." Clockwork flew over to his viewscreen, and it started flipping through images too fast to even see. "There are an infinite number of potential timelines, based on an infinite number of choices that any one of over six billion humans might make, and that's not even taking into account ghosts, non-sentient creatures, or natural occurrences that may or may not happen. An infinite number of paths not taken, but only one path that _is_ taken."

Danny nodded, feeling relieved. He didn't like the idea that somewhere, in some other reality, he did lose Sam and everyone else. But then he realized something. "I've always known Vlad is a sociopathic nut job, but I never really thought of him as someone who would actually murder people. Even when he blackmailed the world over the asteroid, it always seemed like a bluff we just couldn't afford to call. But if what we all saw are potential pasts, then that means Vlad would have to be capable of making the choices that lead to them, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, it would."

"So why would he bother keeping all of us alive? If he wanted to mess with me and Val, why fake everyone's death instead of just doing it for real?"

Clockwork turned from Danny to Tucker. "What kind of batteries do you use to power your handheld computer?"

Tucker gave him a confused look. "Triple-A. Why?"

"Regular alkaline?"

"Are you kidding? Do you know how fast I burn through batteries? I might as well buy a battery factory if I wanna use regular batteries. Besides, Sam would kill me for tossing so many of them. I always use rechargeable."

"Have we just veered completely off topic, or is there a point here?" Danny asked.

But Valerie grinned behind her faceplate. "No, I get the point he's making. If he's gonna use our families and friends as leverage to get us to do what he wants, why go for disposable when he can use the same thing over and over again instead?"

"So he separated us, and showed each of us the version of the past that would best play into what he wanted from us, without having to actually dispose of any of us," Maddie said, shaking her head. "Ingenious." Her tone of voice made it sound more like an accusation than a compliment, however.

"Okay," Danny said, trying to put it all together in his head. "So we know Vlad's spent a lot of his energy to get us here and to mess with each of us. Now is the time to hit him, while he's at less than full strength."

"Hit him with what?" Sam asked. "We don't have any weapons."

"And even if we did, they wouldn't work," his dad said.

Danny looked at him, surprised. "You don't think your own weapons are good enough?"

"Oh, they're good enough. But they're not the right _kind_of weapons. Ecto weapons work great on ghosts, but Vladdy's not a ghost anymore. He's an _anti_-ghost. His powers are based on ectoranium, which has the same properties as the Fenton Ghost Shield, or the Specter Deflector."

Danny's mom frowned. "What are you saying, Jack?"

"That ecto weapons are useless against things with anti-ghost properties. That's the whole point of the Ghost Shield or the Specter Deflector—to neutralize ghost powers. You can't shoot your way out of a Ghost Shield."

Maddie considered this. "So we need weapons that would work on anti-ghost properties. Something that would take down a Ghost Shield."

Danny's eyes widened. "Like my ice powers! That's why they worked better against him than the ectoplasm. The ice powers freeze off ecto powers. Or… something like that."

"That would be a start, yes," his dad said, stroking his chin as he thought about it. "But it won't neutralize it completely, right? You can freeze and then break things that are supposed to stop ghosts, like binders and straps and such, but you couldn't touch ectoranium just by freezing it. Not even with ghost ice powers."

"Well, it'll have to do. I can't think of any other power that would break through a Ghost Shield."

"Are you sure about that?" Clockwork, once more a bucktooth kindergartener, also looked thoughtful. "You have another power that has broken through a Ghost Shield. A very powerful Ghost Shield, in fact. One that was protecting an entire city. Or, rather, I should say that you _would have_ broken through a Ghost Shield, had you not chosen an alternate path."

"What?" Danny cocked his head at the Time Master.

"Do you remember the future you visited, where Amity Park was completely destroyed?"

"I'd rather not remember it, actually."

"Be that as it may, you visited that future after a city-wide shield that had protected it for the better part of a decade was finally destroyed. It was a new power that Amity Park's conqueror had just developed. But you, in this timeline, developed that same power ten years earlier. Do you know what it is?"

"How would I—?" And then he remembered his evil future self's surprise the first time he'd been defeated: _That power… it's not possible! I don't get that power until ten years from now!_ Danny's eyes widened. "My Ghostly Wail!"

His dad snapped his fingers. "Sonic energy! Of course! Sonic waves at the right frequency would cause the ectoranium to deteriorate—" He stopped, slapping his forehead. "Now why didn't we think of that when we were trying to destroy that asteroid?"

"It would have taken more time and energy than making the Earth intangible," Maddie replied.

"Wait. Are you guys saying I can take him out with my Ghostly Wail?"

Jack shook his head. "Probably not with just one blow. Think of it like the way your ghost ray works on regular ghosts. One blast'll hurt 'em, but it takes repeated strikes to really nail 'em."

"Which isn't an option with the Ghostly Wail. It's kind of a one-shot deal—takes too much energy to do more than a few minutes at a time. Although…" He considered this. "One shot might be all we need to get back Clockwork's staff."

"Oh, no." Sam put up a protesting hand. "Just back it up a step, Ghost Boy. You get pretty drained when you use the Ghostly Wail, so unless it would take him out completely—which is even less likely since you already used it tonight on Phantom of the Future—it'll just leave you unable to defend yourself afterwards. You're out of your mind if you think I'm gonna stand by and let you put yourself at risk like that."

"I don't see that it's any of your concern, Samantha," her mother said in a terse voice.

"It's all of our concern," Danny's mom jumped in before Sam could start arguing with her own mother again. "And I agree with Sam on this one." She gave Danny a pointed look. "Save that one for another day. We can use this information to modify the shields and the ecto weapons with the same sonic frequency as your Ghostly Wail. And maybe find a way to harness the ice powers, too. Then it won't be all on you."

"Fine for the long term," Danny agreed, "but we gotta get out of here and back to the Human World first. And without transportation, we're gonna need a portal for that, and the only one here who can make that happen is Clockwork, so we need to get his Time Staff back first."

Valerie put a hand on his shoulder. "I know he was at only a fraction of his strength, and he was kinda letting us win before, but I think we can double-team him long enough to get a big purple stick away from him, don't you?"

"It's pretty much the only option we have," Danny agreed.

Jazz shook her head. "There's a room full of people here. We can do a little more than just _double_-team him."

"Without weapons?" Danny arched an eyebrow at her.

"Listen, Danny. If what Sam and I saw was a potential past, then Vlad's strong enough to waste both of you. You'll need more backup. 'Cause watching that once was enough. I don't want to do it again, not in this or _any _reality." Jazz's voice cracked a little, and she started blinking really fast.

"Ditto that." Mr. Gray glared at his daughter. "I'm only willing to put up with this suit business to a certain point, Valerie. Letting you go off on a suicide mission isn't part of the bargain. This is gonna take all of us."

"But we still need _weapons_." Danny was starting to feel impatient. While he appreciated the protectiveness everyone was feeling after the head games Vlad had played—and certainly Danny was feeling no less protective of them—the reality was that they were defenseless without weapons. Even if regular ecto-weapons didn't really work against Vlad's ectoranium powers, they still would help keep him distracted so that Danny could get in close with his ice powers. But without them, his friends and family being out there would be more a distraction to _him_than to Vlad.

"We do have this." His mom pulled out a small tube that looked like a lipstick.

"The Fenton Utility Weapon? We're gonna need way more firepower than that."

Sam's eyes narrowed. "Tucker. Can't your PDA locate the weapons Vlad took from us? They all run on ecto power, right?"

Tucker considered this a moment. "You know, I probably could, if I knew all the specs." He looked at Danny's dad. "Mr. F. You know exactly what kinds of ecto-power is in the bazookas and other stuff we had out there in the park?"

"The Wrist Rays," Sam said. "Don't forget the Wrist Rays."

Jack's eyes lit up. "Do I know exactly what kinds of ecto-power is in my weapons? Like I know my own name!"

Mr. Manson snorted. "I would hope so, since you _put_ your name on everything you make."

Jack either ignored the dig or, more likely, didn't recognize it as one. "Just tell me what you need, Tuckerino."

"And while they do that, we need to figure out where exactly Vlad is right now." Danny looked up at Clockwork. "Can you find him?"

"If he's still somewhere on Observatory Summit. Although eventually he will come here. Once he discovers his prisoners are missing and his shields are down, he will know the Control Tower has been compromised."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing myself. And this actually would be the perfect place to face him." Danny looked around at row upon row of eyeballs surrounding him. "It's a regular funhouse in here. But we'll need a heads-up when he's coming."

"That much I can do, but I won't be much help in battle. My powers are all time-related. Without my Time Staff—"

"No, he already beat you once. You need to stay out of sight until there's an opportunity to get the staff from him, otherwise he'll know what we're after."

Clockwork gave a curt nod of agreement, then disappeared in a swirl of blue.

"Okay." Danny looked around at his mom, the Mansons, Mr. Gray, Valerie, Jazz, and Sam. "If we already know that the weapons aren't gonna do a whole lot more than distract him so Clockwork can get close enough to get the Time Staff, then we're gonna have to be really smart about how we go at this. I've got an idea, and if we split up into two groups and hit him from more than one direction, we might be able to keep him busy enough to pull this off. Val and I can concentrate on attacking from the air, and Tucker, Sam, and Jazz can back us up from the ground, while the adults—"

"DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!"

Danny blinked at Mr. Manson, who jerked Sam away from him again. Apparently, without even realizing it, Danny had put a hand on Sam's arm when he'd talked about her backing him up.

Sam's face turned red, and she brushed her father off of her. "Stop it, Dad! We're not planning a date, here. We're planning a battle!"

"Well, he can plan it without you!"

Danny's mom looked ready to intervene again, but Danny held up a hand to stop her. "This one's my fight." He turned to face the Mansons. "You're her parents, and whether you believe it or not, I respect that. But that's in the Human World. You're in _my _world now, and here, she's not your daughter; she's one of my team. Right now, if we're gonna all get out of here and back to the Human World, I need to know the people backing me up know exactly what they're doing, and know how I work without even having to ask. And that means Sam. And Tucker, and Jazz, and Valerie."

Sam's parents glared at him, apparently considering their options. After a moment of charged silence, Tucker broke it with a cough from behind them. "We, uh, found the weapons. They're at the base of this Control Tower."

"Why don't Jack, Jeremy, Pam, and I go get them," Maddie said, taking both of Sam's parents by the arms and steering them away. "We'll be right back." There was just enough note of warning in her voice that Danny understood he was only going to get so much leeway.

As soon as they were out of sight, however, Sam leaned close to him and whispered in his ear, her voice hushed, but high-pitched with excitement. "You just totally told off my parents! I am _so_ attracted to you right now."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Lot of good that'll do me once we put a Fenton Phaser in your dad's hands."


	41. Chapter 41

**Forty-one**

_**Observatory Summit  
The Ghost Zone**_

"Oh, snickerdoodles!"

Vlad stood in human form in the doorway between the now empty chamber where Maddie should be and the demolished chamber where the Manson woman had been. He hadn't taken long to recuperate after splitting himself in five—half an hour at most—and already everything had gone to hell. In hindsight, it hadn't been his most brilliant move, putting the two of them in adjoining rooms, but he couldn't stop time indefinitely and hadn't wanted to waste any of his non-time by separating everyone, so he'd kept them in the pairs in which they'd been trapped in his ectoranium shields back in the park. He had gotten all their weapons, or so he'd thought, so he wasn't quite sure what they'd used to blast the eyeball viewer while it was still under the floor, but from the scoring on the nearby carpet, it was definitely ectoplasm-based. And the resulting explosion must have disrupted the room's shield, and now the two women were who knew where.

Actually, as much as he didn't like to admit it, he knew exactly where they probably were. Why did the love of his life, an otherwise brilliant and remarkable woman in every way, have to be afflicted with the most appalling lack of sense in choosing a mate? "Show me the Detention Center!" he barked at the still-intact monitor in Maddie's room.

Nothing happened.

"Cheese balls!" This was not good—Maddie freely roaming around Observatory Summit, and the Observants' monitor not working, despite the fact that this unit showed no signs of any sort of tampering. That meant that most likely the entire system was down, which meant the Control Tower had been breached. And if the Control Tower had been breached, then the shield generator, powering both the sustained ectoranium shield and the anti-human shield, could have been compromised as well, which in turn meant that any or all of his prisoners could already have escaped, not only from their individual areas of confinement, but from Observatory Summit all together. His only saving grace was that humans could not travel far in the Ghost Zone without transportation, so they couldn't have gone far. He'd just need to get to the Control Tower, the source of the Observants' power, and from there he should have no trouble finding them. And as long as he had Clockwork's staff, time was on his side.

Morphing into his new anti-ghost form, he phased through the walls, flying as fast as he could up to the Control Tower, cursing the amount of recuperation it took to get his new powers up to full strength. If only he hadn't divided himself into so many parts just to indulge his desire to torment all of his prisoners. Well, all but Maddie, of course, although he was near the point of complete frustration with her. Add to that the disappointment at Daniel's abysmal display of weakness, and he really was ready to give up and destroy the lot of them.

He finally made it to the Control Tower, morphing in through the floor and landing in the center of the room. It was empty, but a quick survey of the area told him someone had been here. The shield generator was, indeed, destroyed, and worse—Clockwork's viewscreen was gone.

Roaring in rage, he grabbed for the first eyeball viewer he could find. "Show me my prisoners!"

"Looking for me, Plasmius?"

It was Daniel's voice, coming from behind him, and he whirled around, shooting a massive blast of ectoranium energy at the source of the voice. His beam found its target—a viewscreen that had been showing an image of the boy up until he destroyed it.

A juvenile laugh sounded on his left, and he spun again to find Daniel's face on another screen. "What's the matter, Vlad? four thousand channels, and you still can't find anything good on?"

Vlad snarled. "You think you're amusing, child?" He blasted this monitor as well.

One by one, his face appeared on all the eyeballs, until Vlad was surrounded by hundreds of grinning Daniels. "What, you've never heard of Must-See TV?"

"That one was stale before you were even born!" He blasted another monitor, then two more. "I always knew you were weak, Daniel, but a coward as well? Come out and face me!"

"Actually, that's not a bad idea."

The voice came from everywhere, but the blast of ice came from behind. It took a moment before Vlad could free himself, and by the time he turned, he could only see Daniel on the eyeballs, not in person. Roaring in rage he spun in circles. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Come on Plasmius, can't you see what's right in front of you?" But still the voice was from everywhere, mocking him, and he blasted a few more monitors, until he heard the sound of another blast of ice coming at him from behind. This time, he reacted quickly enough, dissipating into nothing while at the same time shooting out a beam of ectoranium in the direction from which the ice blast had come. A cry of pain sounded—no, hundreds of cries of pain—but only one ghost body fell to the ground.

Vlad solidified, feeling a smile he couldn't show on his gaseous-looking, anti-ghost face. "There you are, little badger."

"And here I am!"

The new attack came from above and behind, this time a ray of pink ectoplasm. It couldn't hurt him, not in his new, much more powerful form, but it was still annoying. He turned, tracking Valerie as she swept by him, but just as he shot off another beam of ectoranium energy, Daniel had managed to get himself up off the ground and put an ice shield up between Vlad and the girl. For some reason, the ectoranium couldn't pierce through the ice as easily as through ectoplasm shields, and by the time it broke through, Valerie and Daniel were no longer there, but were swooping around for another attack from above. He took aim, but before he could get off another shot, ectoplasm was hitting him from behind once more. Spinning around again, he saw Jasmine and Daniel's two little friends shooting at him with some of Jack's ridiculous weapons. He returned fire, but once more, Daniel was there, first blocking his sister and friends with another ice shield, then blasting Vlad with a beam so cold, it seemed to freeze every one of his molecules in place.

Pouring ectoranium energy from his arms, his legs, his head, from everywhere in all directions, he blew the ice apart, raining hail-like shards down on them and forcing Daniel and Valerie to protect all of them with ecto-shields. "You think you can stop me with a little ice, boy? You can't win!"

"Maybe not all at once, but I can wear you down, bit by bit." Daniel flew at him again, but Vlad nailed him with ectoranium, and he fell to the floor, writhing in pain.

Several more blasts of ectoplasm hit him from yet another angle. "Leave him alone! I already told you, Vladdy. Your fight's with _me_."

Vlad scowled at the sound of Jack Fenton's voice. "Oh, please! That would be like Evander Holyfield taking on the Pillsbury Doughboy." He turned yet again to find not only Jack, but Maddie, Valerie's father, and both Mansons shooting at him. Worse, while he was distracted, Daniel recovered enough to get off another shot of ice, freezing him briefly once more. This time, however, when he used his ectoranium energy to break him free of the ice, he radiated so much power in all directions that all of his adversaries were forced to retreat down the row of eyeball monitors.

"You're outnumbered, Plasmius." Daniel's voice was a little shakier than before, after having been hit twice by ectoranium, but not by nearly enough to suit Vlad. "You can't win."

The boy did have a point. Although Vlad was easily more powerful than even all of them combined, their sheer numbers—ten of them total—made it impossible for him to fight them all at once. They had him surrounded, and were coming at him in all directions. What he needed was a way to keep them all at bay. _The chain is only as strong as the weakest link._

When he was completely free of the ice, he let himself evaporate into nothing. In his new anti-ghost form, it was a little different than going intangible. It was more like a mist spreading across the room. He was everywhere and nowhere all at once.

"Where'd he go?" That was Valerie.

"Now who's the coward hiding?" That was Daniel, but there was a tension in his voice that belied the taunting. He was afraid of what Vlad could do while in this state. _As well you should be, child._

In an instant, Vlad reformed himself behind the weak link of the group—the two Mansons. Grabbing them as he solidified, he pulled them back away from the others. They yelped in surprise, and their daughter cried out. "Mom! Dad!"

Daniel flew over, hovering just in front of them. "Let them go, Plasmius."

"Or what? You'll get me with your little cold ray again?" He scoffed, tightening his grip around his two hostages. "The ectoranium energy can be lethal to humans as well as ghosts. They'll be dead before you can so much as give me a runny nose."

"And then what? You're completely surrounded."

As if to prove the point, Valerie tried to get in another shot, and while he was busy fending her off, his hostage's daughter fired as well, but he was able to block them easily.

"I wouldn't try that again, any of you." He kept his eyes on Daniel's little playgroup, whom he knew would attempt to come at him if he let himself get distracted. "I'm stronger than you all combined ten times over. I'll pick you off two-by-two if I have to." His gaze moved from Daniel to Maddie. "And that includes you, my love. If you persist in refusing me, I will have no other choice."

Maddie just continued to glare at him, pointing one of Jack's ridiculous weapons at him, but he got a low growl out of the big idiot himself. Again, Vlad felt a smile he couldn't quite express. "You're going to lose her one way or another. I promise you that, Jack."

"I don't think so!" This time there was much more menace in Daniel's voice, and he might have even succeeded in getting him with another blast from those ice powers of his, but Vlad jerked the Mansons backwards again with one massive green forearm.

"Uh-uh-uh. You don't want anything to happen to your little girlfriend's parents, do you?" And then a thought occurred to him. "Or maybe you do."

"What?"

"Come on, Daniel, think about it. You think the source of all your problems this week has been me, but who has it really been?" He gave another jerk with his arm, eliciting a gasp from Mrs. Manson. "_Them_. Without them, it wouldn't matter if the little goth girl was dating a ghost, now, would it? Why, they're the only ones here who don't know the whole truth, aren't they?"

"Watch it, Plasmius!"

He laughed. "I've hit a nerve, haven't I? They're the main reason you persist in keeping your little secret! Because if they knew, they could stop you from seeing their little girl, and for some reason that is completely beyond me, that's important to you."

He _had_hit a nerve. The boy looked both furious and panicked, and Vlad knew exactly how to capitalize on that. "I'm going to give you a choice, Daniel. Either I tell them your secret, or I kill them. It's completely up to you."

The air in the room seemed almost to get thicker as everyone tensed, waiting to hear Daniel's response. But to Vlad's surprise, the threat didn't fluster the boy further. On the contrary, it seemed to embolden him. Crossing his arms, he hovered in the air in front of Vlad. "You know, it never fails to amaze me how you can reach new depths of fruit-loopiness. You cannot, even in that pathetically warped little walnut you call a brain, really think for one second that I'm gonna let you so much as scratch them, let alone kill them."

"They're obstacles, Daniel."

"They're_human being_s, Plasmius, and_Sam's parents_. I don't have to agree with everything they think or say or do to value their lives. That's the thing you just never got. People are just… they're chess figures to you. Their value is only in what they can do for the king. My… Maddie is the queen, the most valuable piece on the board, but still just a player in your little game, to be thrown aside if she fails to bow to the king. And you once called me and Valerie pawns, but we're more like knights or rooks or bishops—key figures, but you think we can only move in certain predictable patterns. Everyone else in the world is just a pawn, virtually worthless once the game is really underway."

Vlad would have widened his eyes if he could. "I'm impressed, Daniel. That's more about chess than I would've thought you knew."

"The thing that you completely don't get is that all of these little chess pieces of yours? They have their own value that has nothing to do with their relationship to you. And it has nothing to do with their relationship to me, either. You're not the center of the universe, Vlad, and neither am I, but as long as you continually see everyone else through this warped lens of what-they-can-do-for-me, you're going to underestimate them every time. And that's why you'll always lose."

Vlad laughed again. "What a moving speech—twice in one day, even. I'd clap if I weren't otherwise occupied. But don't think your little distraction has worked."

Out of the corner of his eye, he'd been watching Valerie move around to his left, trying to get a shot at him while he was listening to Daniel. A single burst of ectoranium sent her flying off her sled with an _oof _of pain.

"Valerie!" That was her father.

Vlad kept his attention on Daniel. "I know how your mind works, boy. You didn't really think you could distract me while your little Team Phantom shot me from behind, did you?"

He smiled. "Not really. I knew you'd expect them to go after you. They might be pawns in your mind, but you know they've got game. But here's the thing, Vlad. There's one player you continually underestimate, and it's gonna bite you in the ass every time."

Vlad glared at him. "I don't underestimate you, Daniel. If anything, I've overestimated you."

A sudden blast from behind and to the right—at close range—burned through him. It was just ectoplasm, so it couldn't do much more than sting like hell, but that combined with the surprise made him reel, and before he knew it, Daniel had swept in and grabbed both the Mansons away from him. Turning towards his assailant, Vlad gaped in shock._ Jack_?

"Actually, Vladdy, I think he meant me."


	42. Chapter 42

**Forty-two**

_**Observants' Control Tower  
The Ghost Zone**_

Now that the Mansons were finally free, all hell broke loose, as Danny flew them away from Vlad and deposited them in the spot where their weapons had fallen to the ground when they'd been grabbed. Danny swept up the Fenton Phaser and Fenton Blaster and tossed them to Sam's shocked parents. "Here, you'll need these." Before they could even react, he was back into the fray, while Sam ran over to make sure they were all right.

Vlad, completely apoplectic over having been taken by Danny's dad of all people, flew at him, and Danny cried out. "Da—Jack! Heads up!" He cursed himself for once again nearly giving himself away just by calling one of his parents the wrong thing… and slowing himself down in the process.

Fortunately, his mom, Jazz, Valerie, Tucker, and Mr. Gray were there, but they could do little more than distract Vlad until Danny swept in and used his ice powers again. That stopped him long enough for everyone to regroup, but once again, it was only temporary. Even though he was outnumbered ten to one, the fact that only Danny could have any sort of real effect on him went a long way towards tipping the balance back in his favor.

Not only that, Danny wasn't exactly sure how he was going to get Vlad to bring out the Time Staff so Clockwork could grab it. He could probably taunt him into it by making references to it only being "a matter of time" before they beat him or some such, but it was a huge gamble. Although Clockwork was immune to the staff's ability to stop time, he wasn't likely to get it away from Vlad if everyone else was frozen and couldn't help. And Danny didn't even want to think what Vlad could accomplish during another Time Out. The potential timeline he'd seen on that viewscreen with Valerie played in his mind like a gruesome nightmare, and just knowing that was a potential, that Vlad had it in him to take out everyone he loved, made him nervous about giving him even half a chance to stop time again. He needed to find a way for their side to get the upper hand first, to make sure he had Vlad on the ropes before he taunted him into going for the Time Staff. _And when he does, I hope you're ready, Clockwork_. As per their plan, Clockwork had thus far remained completely out of sight ever since he'd gotten back to the Control Tower to tell them Vlad was on his way.

Free of the ice once more, Vlad went on the attack. At first, he tried to repeat his ploy of separating out one or two of them to use as leverage, but they were onto him now, and whenever he'd evaporate like that—the anti-ghost version of going intangible, Danny figured—they'd pull into one tight formation with Danny and Valerie circling above, ready to defend them with ecto-shields and ice. When Vlad realized he wasn't going to be able to thin the herd that way, he changed tactics and started a hard assault on Danny, keeping him on the defensive so that he couldn't use his ice as an offensive weapon. The others would pick at him from the sides, and Valerie from above, but the ecto weapons just weren't effective enough.

Danny got in a few good shots, but Vlad had already nailed him twice, and he was starting to feel shaky from the electric jolts to his system. Vlad went in for another attack, and Danny was able to counter with an ice blast, but he was getting pressed further and further back until he was up against a row of eyeball monitors so tightly packed he couldn't get through them. Valerie, Jazz, Sam, Tucker, his parents, Sam's parents, Mr. Gray… they were all over Vlad, hitting him with everything they had, but it wasn't enough. Then Vlad stopped his attack on Danny and began radiating energy in all directions. Danny, his reflexes dulled slightly by the shocks he'd already received, couldn't react quickly enough to get an ice shield up in time. Val swooped in and countered with an ectoplasm shield, but it didn't hold. Then, he heard Sam gasp. "We're in the Ghost Zone!"

Before Danny could figure out why that was important, she grabbed Jazz and Mr. Gray, the two people nearest her, and dove for another line of monitors, which the three of them phased through before the ectoranium blast could reach them. The monitors absorbed the attack and blew out, but Sam, Jazz, and Mr. Gray were safe.

The others caught on quickly, and all of them found cover behind rows of monitors. This gave Danny a chance to get off another shot of ice, but Vlad was still too quick for him, and he blocked with a shield of his own. Valerie peppered him from above, and other shots rang out from various vantage points around the room, but Danny was still pinned to monitors he couldn't pass through in ghost form.

When he saw Sam peek out from behind one of the eyeballs, he called out to her, then jerked his head first towards her parents, then backwards toward the monitors behind him hemming him in. She nodded in understanding, and Danny couldn't help but smile, despite the difficult situation. However many misunderstandings and miscommunications they might have as boyfriend and girlfriend, as ghost fighters, they were always completely in sync. She knew exactly what he needed with only the slightest sign from him. The next time her parents came out from behind the monitor they were using for cover, Sam cried out, "Mom! Dad! Look out!" She then pushed them down again, and as they disappeared from sight, Danny heard her call back to him, "Go!"

Danny didn't need a second invitation. Triggering the twin rings of light that changed him from one form to the other, he morphed into human form and let himself fall backward against the monitors behind him, phasing through them to land on the other side. Changing back, he poked his head out long enough to rain down ice on top of Vlad. While the anti-ghost was temporarily immobilized, Danny took the opportunity to fly down the row and circle around to where everyone else was huddled behind eyeballs. "We need to get out of here and regroup, before he breaks free again. Just head for the elevator."

He flew up over the monitors while the rest of them ran straight through them. They'd made it to the second-to-last row when they heard the ice breaking apart behind them as Vlad freed himself with a roar. Danny was forced to land so that he couldn't spot where they were, and the others stopped as well, gathering around him.

From the center control area, Vlad called out to them. "Hiding again, Daniel? You know you've lost, don't you?"

"What now?" his mom asked in a hushed tone. "We can retreat, but we still don't have the Time Staff, and without it, we can't leave. But even severely outnumbered, he's got us completely overpowered. How are we gonna get close enough to get the thing from him?"

"We gotta get him to reveal it first." Danny gritted his teeth. "Clockwork will do the rest, but if we don't time it just right, then he'll actually use that staff, and we're sunk."

"Then we've gotta just keep going at him," his dad said.

"Yeah, I guess I just need to keep pouring on the ice and hope he eventually wears out."

"You're the one wearing out," Sam said.

"I'm good."

"No, she's right." Jazz shook her head. "You can't keep this up by yourself."

"I'm not by myself."

Tucker pushed his beret a little further back off his forehead. "Might as well be, dude. The ecto-weapons aren't cutting it."

Behind them, Vlad began taunting them. "Forgive the pun, but don't you think it's time for you to give up the ghost? Those ridiculous weapons of Jack's might as well be water guns, and your ice powers haven't even managed to so much as give me a minor case of frostbite. How long do you think you can keep this up?"

Danny's eyes widened at Vlad's words. "That's it! We're in the _Ghost Zone_! I don't have to keep this up by myself!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Maddie asked.

"It means I know how to beat him. But first, we need to take this fight some place with a little more room." He looked at Valerie. "You and I need to hold him off long enough for everyone else to get out of here and get down to the base of the mountain."

Mr. Gray frowned. "No way we're leaving you two kids to face him alone."

"You're not. We'll be right behind you. Just get down there and be ready to surround Vlad again."

There was an explosion as Vlad blew through several monitors a few rows back. "You can't hide forever, Daniel!"

With a nod at Valerie, Danny rose up into the air, blasting at Vlad with more ice. "I don't plan on it, Plasmius."

Vlad got up a defensive shield in time, while Valerie flew around to pepper him from behind with her ecto darts. Below Danny, the others were on the move again, this time making it to the elevator, and then they were gone. Vlad went after Val, and Danny got between them, shielding them both with ice, but just barely.

Valerie clucked her tongue. "You're slowing down, Phantom. We should blow this popsicle stand."

"I just wanna give them a little more time…"

Vlad flew at them, and they had to separate as he blasted between them. Valerie shot at him with her arm-mounted gun, and Danny hit him with ectoplasm this time, if only because it took less energy for him to produce. Vlad spun to face him and attack directly, and he switched back to ice, then zoomed around Vlad to grab Valerie around the waist. "PUNCH IT!" he shouted, while simultaneously changing form back to human, and then she was off, with him clinging to her waist for dear life.

They phased through the wall of the observatory, then headed down the mountain toward its base and the largest observatory, the Council Chambers where they'd been trapped together. As they flew, he went ghost again, breathing a sigh of relief as he was finally able to release his death-grip on her and fly under his own power. "Remind me to never fly with you in human form again."

"Wimp."

They landed outside the half-destroyed Council Chambers just as the rest of the team came running out of the elevator shaft in the side of the cliff, Tucker and Sam in the lead and Danny's dad bringing up the rear. As he huffed up beside them, Jack looked up at Danny. "Okay, Dan. What's this plan of yours?" But before he could answer, a roar from above told them Vlad was coming after them again.

Danny took a breath, steeling himself for what was coming. "Second verse, same as the first. Valerie's on me. Sam, Tuck, and Jazz, take the cliff side. Mo…addie and Jack…" Danny bit back another curse at the name confusion. "You, Mr. Gray, and the Mansons come at him from behind the observatory there. Surround him and keep him busy. I'll take care of the rest."

As Vlad descended on them, they all scattered to take up their positions. Danny created another ice shield to slow him down and keep him from raining down ectoranium on them all, but Vlad had the shield blasted apart before he even got there, and then he was on the ground. He used another of those ectoranium radiation bursts to force everyone to back off, then went after Danny.

"You should have joined me when you had the chance, Daniel."

"Yeah, I don't think so." Mentally, Danny prepared himself. He let his body temperature drop so that ice was in every part of him.

"Your band of sidekicks can't help you, and your ice powers aren't enough to stop me."

"Good thing for me I've got more ways to stop you than just my ice powers." And with a massive intake of air, he let loose with a Ghostly Wail.

Behind him, he heard Sam gasp. "Danny, no!" But he kept wailing.

Vlad was blown back by the force of the sonic blast, and the others parted, hands over their ears, as he flew past them into the ruins of the Council Chambers. He stumbled to his feet, but still Danny kept wailing, taking slow steps in Vlad's direction while still letting the cold permeate him. He didn't shoot it in a blast towards Vlad like usual, but let it infuse him, his surroundings, even his Wail. He kept it up for a full minute, and probably could have gone longer if he hadn't have used his Ghostly Wail earlier against his future self. As it was, he stopped before his energy was depleted enough to revert him back to human. But still, two long Wails within a few hours of each other… it wiped him out, and he hunched over, his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. _This better have worked_…

Vlad stood up, also winded, and suddenly ten weapons were pointed at him.

Danny's dad took a step towards him. "It's over, Vladdy."

"What can I say, Jack? Well, I suppose actions speak louder than words." In an instant, he was fully upright and blasting out ectoranium once more. Valerie reacted before Danny could, getting an ecto-shield in front of all of them. Vlad's powers were clearly weaker than they were—the ecto-shield stopped them long enough for Danny to reinforce it with ice—but it still wasn't enough. Both shields eventually gave way, and they were forced to duck for cover again. Danny was still sluggish, so Sam grabbed him by the arm and dragged him backwards behind a crumbled piece of telescope from the Council Chamber.

"What the hell were you thinking, Danny? Now you're too weak to fight him!"

"I won't have to, not if that worked the way I hope it did."

She frowned, confused. "What—?"

But there was no time for questions and answers. Vlad was attacking again, and Danny, tired as he was, had to hold him off a little longer. _Please, hurry_…

Vlad laughed. "Look at you! You're exhausted! Your more powerful future self tried the same pathetic trick the day I took down Clockwork's Tower, and it didn't work for him, either! Did you really think that one little cry would be enough to defeat me?"

In the distance, Danny heard a noise, faint at first but quickly growing louder, and a slow smile crept across his face. "Who said I was trying to defeat you?"

It was hard to tell on Vlad's green, clouded face, but Danny could have sworn he'd seen a look of confusion cross his eyes. "What are you—?" And then everything was drowned out by the sound of ion engines as dozens of hover cars, each carrying two mammoth snow creatures, roared into view. In the lead car, Frostbite raised an arm in greeting.

Vlad hissed in anger. "_Frostbite_? That old fleabag can't help you. I could beat him in my old ghost form!" He shot another blast of ectoranium at Danny, knocking him backwards with another jolt, before turning his attack on Frostbite and his creatures.

Frostbite, assessing the situation quickly, let out a terrifying growl that had everyone but Danny, Sam, and Tucker cowering in fright, and at least fifty snow creatures descended on Vlad. As he began to fight back, Danny collapsed to his knees, finally succumbing to his exhaustion and the multiple blasts of ectoranium.

Several voices cried out his name, but Sam got there first, sliding to her own knees in front of him and cupping his cheek in her hand. "You scared the crap out of me, pulling that Ghostly Wail when you knew it would wear you out. If Frostbite hadn't come…"

He met her gaze. "I knew he would. He said he would when we visited him, remember? He said if I called, he'd come, because we share the same abilities. That if I put those abilities into everything I did, I'd never be alone. So I let the ice powers out through the Ghostly Wail. I knew he'd hear and come."

Tucker, Jazz, and Danny's parents also surrounded him, his mom kneeling down beside Sam, who pulled back enough to let the others talk to him, but hovered close, one protective hand on his arm. His mom gave him a worried smile. "You okay, sweetie?"

"A little wiped."

"And the abominable snowmen?" His dad sounded a little apprehensive. "They're friends of yours?"

"Yeah. I told you about Frostbite and the Far Frozen, remember?"

He nodded, but without taking his eyes off the battle between Vlad and the snow beasts, which Valerie, her dad, and the Mansons were also watching with gaping expressions. Vlad was able to hold Frostbite and the others off for a while—much longer than Danny had hoped, especially after being weakened by the Ghostly Wail—but he was gradually beaten back towards the Council Chamber observatory. Frostbite then peeled off from his subordinates to hover over Danny. "Hello, Great One! Am I to assume by your call that this is the ghost responsible for destroying Clockwork's Tower?"

Danny nodded in confirmation. "He's not a ghost, though, not anymore. It's Vlad Plasmius, and he got nailed by that asteroid, the one from last summer that almost destroyed the earth. He's some sort of anti-ghost now. Our ice powers are about the only thing that work against him, that and my Ghostly Wail."

"Yet even greatly outnumbering him, we cannot seem to do more than hold him off."

"I know. He has Clockwork's Time Staff hidden on him somewhere. We need to get him to reveal it so we can get it back."

Frostbite narrowed his eyes and bared his teeth in what Danny figured was supposed to be a grin. "You have a plan?"

"Sort of. Just follow my lead."

He started to get up off the ground, but several hands held him back, and his mother shook her head. "You just said you were wiped."

"I'm not gonna fight. Trust me."

She relented, and Danny got up and floated up to Frostbite's side. "Let's finish this."

Frostbite nodded, guiding his hovercraft back to join his companions, while Danny flew at his side. As they approached Vlad, Danny called out to him. "Give it up, Plasmius. We have you outnumbered. It's only a matter of time before you fall."

Vlad blasted the nearest snow beasts off of him. "You think so, Daniel? You forget. Time is on _my_ side." He produced the Time Staff, seeming to pull it out from inside himself, but as soon as he did, there was a rushing sound and a whirl of blue light, and Clockwork was there. Before Vlad could react, the Master of Time darted in and reclaimed his staff.

Danny grinned, folding his arms across his chest. "And now it's not."

Vlad snarled in fury. "This is not over! I will rule the Ghost Zone, and you will all pay the price for defying me!" And then he was gone, evaporating into green mist that drifted off into the mottled green "sky" of the Ghost Zone.


	43. Chapter 43

**Forty-three**

_**Amity Park**_

The return trip to the park was a little less jolting than the one into the Ghost Zone had been, if for no other reason than they were prepared for it this time. They arrived in the same glade of trees they had left only a few hours earlier—had it really been only that long?—a band of nine humans, two ghosts, and one half-ghost.

"Uh…" Danny saw Mr. Manson lean in toward his wife, speaking in a loud whisper no one could miss. "Why did the big, hairy monster come along?"

It was Clockwork who answered. "Because we have much to discuss."

Danny looked from Clockwork to Frostbite. "I was right. It's Pariah Dark all over again, isn't it?"

Clockwork nodded, morphing from old man to young man, and Frostbite crossed his massive, furry arm over the ice one, giving Danny a solemn look. "It would seem so, Danny Phantom."

"He told me and Mr. G. as much," Tucker said. "He was talking about pulling together some kind of ghost army and invading Amity Park."

Danny chewed on this a moment. "Then we need to get to the ghosts first—talk them into standing against him. They can't be happy about him invading their turf, and running to the Human World won't be an option this time."

"It's true that many of the Ghost Zone's inhabitants will resent his 'invading their turf.'" Clockwork changed to young child form. "Like you yourself, he is both one of us and an outsider, and some will fight to protect their own interests for that reason. But many will not. Plasmius is a creature like none we have ever seen before, and many of the abilities of even the fiercest and most formidable among us will be useless against him, my own included. Those who are afraid, and others who are opportunists, wanting to position themselves on the same side as that kind of power because they believe he will win, will support him. The Ghost Zone will be divided by this."

Frostbite's expression darkened, his yellow eyes turning stormy. "A civil war."

"Civil war?" Danny's eyes widened. "Oh, man, that can't be good."

"Vladdy won't be satisfied with just duking it out with other ghosts in the Ghost Zone, either." Jack's eyes looked almost as dark as Frostbite's, and his jaw was clenched in anger. "He may have had me fooled for more than twenty years, but I still know how his mind works. He's like a dog with a bone—won't let go 'til he's got what he wants." He grunted. "I used to admire that about him. But right now, _we're_ the bone he's gonna wanna gnaw on—me in particular—and he won't wanna wait until he's conquered the Ghost Zone to do it. We need to be ready for him ASAP."

"It will take him some time to recover," Clockwork reminded him. "That works in our favor."

Danny's mother joined the conversation. "And if he's facing a strong resistance in the Ghost Zone, he won't be able to attack Amity Park right away. That will give us more time to develop weapons that will work against him. Danny's ice powers, his Ghostly Wail… we can find ways to modify the ecto-weapons to mimic those powers that work against anti-ghost elements."

"We can't just let him tear apart the Ghost Zone while we work on weapons," Danny protested. "He's our problem as much as he's theirs, and not just because he'll come after us next. We've gotta help defend the Ghost Zone right from the start. Like Clockwork said, the ghosts' usual powers aren't gonna work on him."

Frostbite clamped his paw down on Danny's shoulder almost hard enough to knock him over. "The people of the Far Frozen share your abilities. Long have we cultivated the power of ice as a counter to traditional ecto-power. We, too, have studied the remains of Clockwork's Tower, and we will study Observatory Summit as well. Like the Mighty Fentons, we are crafters of weapons. We will stand against him, and will work to recruit others to do so as well." He nodded towards Jack and Maddie—introductions had been made before they'd left the Ghost Zone, and Danny's parents had been absurdly pleased to find that Frostbite already knew of the "Mighty Fentons."

"Will it be enough? The ice powers do block the ectoranium energy, but not for long. Even when he was weakened from my Ghostly Wail, it took fifty of your people just to keep him at bay. When he's at full strength, with a whole _army_…"

"It will be enough to mount a defense while we come up with a plan for a decisive victory."

"I, too, will go to the Far Frozen," Clockwork added. "It will be the base of our resistance. The physical properties of that realm will be more difficult for him to breach than my tower or Observatory Summit were."

Danny frowned. "What did happen to the Observants, anyway? Are they in hiding, like you were? Or are they…?"

"According to the records from their own viewing devices, it seems that many of the Observants were destroyed, but many escaped as well. Do not count on them for assistance, however. They observe and pronounce judgment; they do not act. They will remain in hiding until order is restored." If possible, Clockwork's tone got even more sardonic than usual, indicating his lack of esteem for such an ethic.

Danny winced in pain as Frostbite squeezed his shoulder. "We will handle the Ghost Zone resistance, Great One. Your domain is here. You and your allies here in the Human World must prepare to defend your home."

"Oh, we'll defend it all right," Jack said, his dark tone matching his expression.

Danny looked at his dad, remembering how he'd handled Vlad the last time he'd threatened the world. "Here's the thing. You guys are talking about _war_, and that's a really big word. I get that that's where Plasmius is probably gonna take us, and that we have to do what we have to do to stop him, but… whatever he is now, whatever he's done or might do, he's still half-human. A warped, pathetic rat bastard of a human, but still human. If we have to… if it takes lethal force to protect our worlds, then I guess he's pushed us to that. But that can't be the goal here. We have to try and find a way to neutralize his ghost powers, or his anti-ghost powers, or whatever they are. Maybe even separate out the ghost from the human so that he can face justice here in the Human World, _as_ a human."

His mother gave him a thoughtful look. "Are you thinking of the Ghost Catcher?"

"That, or the Ghost Gauntlets, or any of the other ways we've stumbled across over the last couple of years to separate out ghost from human."

His father considered this. "I don't know if any of that would work on Vladdy the way he is now."

"Okay, but if you can modify the weapons to work on him, can't you modify one of those things? Or come up with something new? I…" He gave his dad a small smile. "I don't say it often enough, but you're really good at inventing stuff."

Jack's eyes widened and looked a little glassy. "That means a lot to me, son." Then he blinked, glancing at the Mansons, and stumbled to add, "And I, er, of course mean that in the general sense of any young man. Right, _son_?" He elbowed Tucker for emphasis.

Tucker yelped in indignation, and Danny cringed in embarrassment. "The point is,_ Jack_, I think that needs to be part of our overall plan. I don't want to be responsible for someone's death if I can help it. Not even Vlad's."

Clockwork, in old man form, gave him a contemplative look. "War means death, Ghost Child."

"I know. But there's a difference between self-defense and revenge. If we can defend ourselves by neutralizing Vlad as a threat, by separating out the ghost—or anti-ghost, or whatever—from the human so the human justice system can deal with the human side of him and the ghosts can deal with the ghost side, then that's the right thing to do." His eye caught Valerie's, then Tucker's, and Jazz's, and finally came to rest on Sam's. "If I start looking for revenge, I don't think I'll like who I become."

Clockwork smiled. "Some lessons need to be repeated, but some lessons, once learned, stay with you."

Danny nodded.

Frostbite took his paw off Danny's shoulder and held it out to him. "We are in agreement. Allies in the war to protect both our worlds." Danny grasped the massive paw as best he could, and they shook, Frostbite pumping his arm almost hard enough to take it off. "We will be in contact with you, Danny Phantom. But now we must return to the Realm of the Far Frozen and prepare, just as you must prepare here." He and Clockwork made their farewells to everyone, and then they were gone in a whirlpool of blue light from Clockwork's Time Staff.

Danny's mom looked at his dad. "We're going to need to get busy modifying the weapons. The Ghost Shield, too." She turned to the other adults present. "We'll equip both of your homes with shields, of course. Yours, too, Tucker."

"What about weapons?" Mr. Gray asked her. "We'll need more than just shields to fight a war."

"You saying you're in, Damon?" Jack asked.

"Are you kidding me? I haven't forgotten what it was like when that other Ghost King messed with Amity Park. I'm not gonna just sit by and let Masters, or whatever he calls himself now, do the same—or worse. You bet I'm in."

Valerie cocked her head at him, her hands on her hips. "What about me, Daddy? You gonna let me help, too? Or you gonna keep pretending I'm not one of the best ghost hunters in Amity Park?"

He studied her a moment. "You're already a part of this, whether I like it or not. But don't think that means you get carte blanche to go out in that suit any time you please. There are still rules you have to abide by, young lady." He turned back to Danny's dad. "So, about those weapons…"

"We'll get you weapons, D-man. Of course, we'll have to start you out with something small until you get the feel—"

"Jack…" Maddie warned.

He crossed his arms, dejected. "Oh, all right. You can have whatever weapons you want."

The Mansons glanced at each other, then Mr. Manson clapped his hand on Jack's shoulder. "Don't forget us, Fenton. We're in, too."

Sam gaped at her parents. "Y-you're going to get _involved_? With _ghosts_?"

"We haven't forgotten the Ghost King, either. And we saw what that… _thing_ can do." Mr. Manson shuddered. "We'll do what we can to help stop him."

"Who are you and what have you done with my parents?"

Mrs. Manson crossed her arms. "By 'we,' your father means he and I. Not you. You will stay completely out of this whole ghost business."

"Yeah, now that sounds like my parents." She rolled her eyes in dismay.

Danny, however, was more reactive. "You can't do that! Sam's as much a part of this as any of us, and she's a really good ghost fighter. I need her—"

Mr. Manson leaned forward, getting so close Danny could feel his breath on his face. "You listen here, Ghost. I don't care what you think you need her for—she's not yours. Not in any sense of the word. We're not in the Ghost Zone anymore, and you are going to stay the heck away from her from this moment forward, do you understand me? Because if you don't, hero or no, we will be filing a complaint with the government about the ghost that is harassing our teenage daughter."

Jack made a motion like he was going to jump in, but Maddie put a restraining hand on his arm. "This isn't something we can get involved in, Jack. It's between the Mansons and Danny."

But Sam wasn't willing to hold back. "I don't believe you! He saved your life back there, when Vlad had you, and this is the thanks he gets? Threatening to call the government on him? Do you have any idea what they'd do to him?" She moved to Danny's side, clasping his hand in hers. "Like it or not, I'm a part of his team, and I'm not gonna let you bring the Jerks in White down on him—"

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH, YOUNG LADY!" Sam's mom looked absolutely mortified. "Your father and I have never understood your interest in all these weird and disturbing things, but your behavior the past several days has gone from inexplicable to completely _inexcusable_! To carry on this way, with this _ghost_, in front of the family of the boy you were supposed to be seeing! Have you no shame at all?"

It felt like the air had just been sucked out of the park, and the others stood in awkward silence. Sam dropped Danny's hand as if it had scalded her, her face turning a bright shade of red.

"Don't you_ dare_ talk to her like that!" Danny felt his own face burn, but more out of anger than embarrassment. "You have no idea what's really going on—"

"Danny, stop!" Sam's voice was pleading, her anger replaced by a mixture of fear and humiliation. "Don't say anything more, please. She's right."

"No, she is not right!"

"Yes, she is! I…" She closed her eyes. "Four years ago, someone came into my life and changed it forever. That's the relationship that matters to me. Not the ghost fighting or any of this. And I will do whatever I have to do to protect that." She opened her eyes again and met his gaze, her own fiercely determined. "_Whatever it takes_."

"Sam—"

"For the last time, leave her alone," Mr. Manson said. "Samantha, we're going home."

Sam nodded, not taking her gaze off Danny. "Yes, Dad." Then, she turned and followed her parents towards the parking lot.

Danny made a motion to follow her, but a hand on his arm stopped him, and he turned, surprised to see it was Tucker.

"Dude. Not the time or place."

He jerked his arm out of Tucker's grasp. "So I'm supposed to just let them drag her off like that?"

"Sweetie." His mother was beside him now. "I know this whole situation is impossible. But like it or not, she's sixteen and they're her parents. They have a right—an _obligation_—to make certain decisions about her life."

"Even when it's based on a _lie_?"

"It's only Danny Phantom they're upset with," Tucker reminded him. "They've got no issue with Danny Fenton."

Danny let out a grunt of exasperation. "You don't get it! This isn't about me! This is about what they think of _her_. I've spent the last three days listening to people rag on her, or make snide comments, and I'm _done_. I'm not gonna let everyone think badly of her just to protect my stupid secret identity! It isn't worth it!"

"What if I told you I could fix it?"

Danny stared at Tucker. "What do you mean? How could you fix it?"

Tucker smiled. "Before you and Valerie showed up in the Control Tower, her dad and I were looking through all those different videos on Clockwork's monitor, and we found the master of the video that was on the 'net. That's how he got such perfect video—He used Clockwork's tech. Which doesn't just show what actually happened…"

Danny's eyes widened. "It shows all the potential timelines that _might_ have happened."

"Uh-huh. And potentially, you might have decided to change back to human form before macking on your girlfriend."

"Is that what you saw? Video of me with her as Danny Fenton?"

He nodded. "Other than the fact that it's Fenton instead of Phantom, it's virtually identical. I downloaded it to my PDA, so now we have the master, we know who took it—and he's in no position to be saying what he did and didn't see—and we have a virtually identical video of Danny _Fenton_ with Sam. By the time school starts on Monday, there will be a new video on the web. Proof that the first one was faked from the _real_ video of Sam and Danny _Fenton_. Sure, it'll make you look like a jerk for doubting her, especially when it was really you in the video all along. You might even have to do some public groveling to really sell it. But I'll bet no one will be the least bit suspicious if you two lovebirds have the whole thing patched up by lunchtime."

Danny nodded, feeling numb. He wanted to be happy about what Tucker was saying—it would fix everything at school, repair Sam's reputation, and he could take the rap for being the stupid one for a while. Except… "It's not good enough, Tuck." When Tucker looked a little crestfallen, Danny hurried to add, "No, it's great, and everything at school will be fixed. But her parents saw us together in person. This won't fix things with them."

"What will fix things with them, Danny?" his mother asked with a rather pointed look.

"I…" Sighing, he met her gaze. "It's time. They need to know the truth."

A mixture of emotions played on her face—relief, and fear, and… pride? He didn't feel like she should be proud of him. He'd been a coward for far too long. But he was surprised at how simple it seemed, now that he'd made the decision. Although he shouldn't be surprised. It had been the same way when he'd found out that Jazz knew. Or when he'd revealed himself to his parents. Maybe one day it would feel this right to not have to keep the secret from anyone.

"Danny…" Jazz's expression was much more straightforward. She was clearly worried. "They threatened to turn you in to Guys in White."

Danny shrugged. "I know, but it doesn't matter. Whatever they do won't change what _I_ need to do. What I should've done a long time ago." He looked at Tucker. "And not just Sam's parents. Yours too, buddy. It's time they knew the truth."

Tucker's eyes widened and he put up his hands in protest. "Hold up, there. No need to go crazy…"

He put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "It's time, Tuck. Vlad's gonna come after every one of us that was there tonight, and your parents are gonna need to know what to expect. And I'm not gonna waste my time like I did today worrying about whether I should call my dad 'Dad' or 'Jack.' It's gonna get somebody killed."

"For what it's worth, Danny, I think you're doing the right thing," his mom said quietly. "Your father and I can help you tell them."

Danny looked at Tucker, whose eyes were still wide with apprehension, then nodded to his mom. "Yeah, I think that'd be a good idea. But only for Tucker's parents. Sam's parents…" He winced. "I'm gonna have to clean up that mess on my own."


	44. Chapter 44

**Forty-four**

_**The Manson Residence  
Amity Park**_

Sam lay sprawled on her stomach across her bed, flipping through a magazine without really paying attention to what she was doing. Grounded "until the end of all time" for her escape down the ladder earlier—and that wasn't even getting into what happened in the Ghost Zone and back in the park—she wasn't allowed on her computer, not even to put on music, which meant no Dumpty Humpty counter-surveillance program. Not that it mattered. Although the Guys in White were back in their usual spot on the corner after chasing Amorpho all over town, Danny couldn't possibly be stupid enough to try to see her tonight, not with her parents on the lookout for him in ghost form. They'd even made her keep her door open, and one of them walked by every fifteen minutes or so to make sure she was still there, and still alone.

Her grandmother, who had returned from her poker game just before Sam and her parents got home, had tried staking out her room for a while, too, hoping to get an explanation of what was going on, since her parents were being closed-lipped about the evening's events. Sam had refused to speak with her, however, and she eventually gave up, but only after vowing to make a nuisance of herself the entire weekend until Sam talked. It was tempting, actually, to just spill everything to the one person in the house who might actually understand, but right now her thoughts were too scattered and her emotions too raw for her to want to talk to anyone.

She was just about ready to give up on the magazine and go to bed early when a loud crash outside her open window, followed by some cursing, made her sit upright. _Oh no. Maybe Danny _is_ stupid enough_… Hurrying to the window, she peeked out through the closed curtains onto the street. When she saw the source of the commotion, she was torn between laughing out loud and groaning in dismay. The white government van on the corner looked like it had been turned inside out, with chunks of equipment strewn across the pavement, and wires snaking out through the van's side door as if it were a gutted animal. Smoke and sparks poured out from all the windows and doors, and Operatives O. and K. were scrambling around trying to figure out what had happened.

"But there was nothing on the monitors!" O. was saying. "No heat signature, no ecto signature, nothing!"

"Well, it sure as hell wasn't a windstorm that did this!" K. was scratching the back of his head, frustrated. "All of our equipment, completely fried!"

Despite the pleasure of seeing the feds' surveillance equipment so thoroughly trashed, it was the groan that won out, and Sam backed away from the window, contemplating the many ways she was going to throttle Danny for this little stunt. Either he was venting his frustration inappropriately—again—or he was planning on trying to see her, even though her closed drapes were supposed to indicate he was to stay away. Eyeing her open door with apprehension, she wondered how long she had before the next parental walk-by.

The question became irrelevant, however, when the doorbell rang and, a moment later, she heard her mother's surprised and somewhat discomfited voice as she answered the door. "Oh! Hello, Danny."

Sam froze. Danny came to the _front door_? And obviously in human form, judging by her mother's attempt at civility and use of his name instead of some variation of "_that ghost_." Peering through the drapes again, Sam tried to get a view of the front porch, but from her angle, she couldn't see anything, not without leaning out the window, which would not be a good idea, lest her mother see and accuse her of trying to escape again.

"This… isn't a good time right now," she heard her mother continue. "Sam can't have any visitors."

Danny's voice drifted up to her. "I know. I actually came to talk to you and Mr. Manson. And Sam's grandmother, too, if that's okay. It's… kind of important."

Sam's heart started pounding in her chest. He wanted to talk to her parents? This could not be good. _Please send him away, Mom, please send him away…_

"All right," her mother said, and Sam grunted in frustration, slapping her clenched fist against her forehead. The click of the front door closing below her got her moving, and she made a dash for her own door. _Gotta cut him off at the pass…_

When she skidded to a halt on the landing above the front hallway, she saw Danny standing below, just inside the front door. His fists were jammed into the pockets of his jacket, and he was looking down at his sneakers while he toed the edge of the lavender area rug that adorned the foyer floor. Sam gripped the landing rail in front of her. "Danny? What are you doing here?"

He looked up at her, momentarily caught off-guard, but the whir of an electronic scooter drew his attention across the foyer as her grandmother rolled into view, followed by her parents. Her dad gave Danny a curious look. "Yes, son. What are you doing here?"

Danny took his hands out of his pockets, a determined look settling onto his face. "What I should've done in the first place. I'm setting the record straight."

Sam swallowed, her worst fears realized. "Danny, no. Please. Just leave it alone."

"I can't do that, Sam. I can't let them think you've done something you'd never do."

"I don't _care_."

"Well, I do."

Sam ground her teeth in frustration. "They're my parents, Danny. Not yours."

"But it's _my_ decision to make."

"_No_." Her knuckles turned white from gripping the rail so hard.

"It's time, Sam. Tucker's parents already know. I just came from there."

Sam felt her jaw come unhinged. "WHAT? Are you crazy? If you tell everyone—"

"Not everyone. Just the people who need to know."

"Well, they _don't_ need to know!"

"Yeah, I think they do. We're gearing up for a _war_ here, and I can't be worried about watching what I say to people who are supposed to all be on the same side. I thought I was gonna get my dad killed, stumbling over his name like that."

Sam's father, no longer content to remain a spectator to their disagreement, stepped around her grandmother's scooter to come closer to Danny. "What are you trying to say, son? What do we need to know?"

Danny took a breath, steeling himself, as he rubbed his hands on his jeans and began what sounded to Sam like a speech he'd been rehearsing all the way over here. "Mr. and Mrs. Manson, I know I'm not exactly your favorite person. And I know that my family is kinda… nuts. And what I'm about to tell you isn't exactly gonna make you like me _more_."

Sam closed her eyes. "Danny, don't. Please…"

He continued, undeterred. "But the thing is, I'm in love with your daughter."

That was not what Sam expected. She gasped, her eyes flying open as she stared down at him. She wanted to go downstairs, to hug him, or smack some sense into him, or _something_, but her legs suddenly felt like water and she couldn't move. Only her death grip on the landing rail kept her on her feet.

Danny looked up at her, his eyes meeting hers with a steady intensity as he continued his speech, not only to her parents, but to her as well. "I know I'm only sixteen, and kids my age fall in and out of love every other day, but I…" He looked back down at her parents. "I've never said that to anyone before. I've never _felt_ it about anyone before, and she's been too important to me for too long for me to say something like that lightly. But lately, I haven't been acting like it. The past few days, I've stood by and let her take the blame for something she didn't do. I should never have let that happen, and it's way past time to put a stop to it. I can't let everyone—especially her family—think what they're thinking about her anymore."

"I don't care what people think about me, Danny! You know that!"

He turned to face her once more. "That's a complete load, Sam. You might not care if people think you're weird because of what you wear, or because you're an Ultra Recyclo-Vegetarian, or because of the causes you fight for. But don't tell me you don't care if people think you would 'trade up,' or cheat on someone, or go back on your word. And don't tell me it doesn't matter what your parents think, or your grandmother. Your integrity matters, and I can't let you trash it for me anymore. Now, the kids at school, that's an easy fix. Tucker found the master of that video in the Observants' control tower, on Clockwork's viewscreen."

Sam frowned. "How does that fix anything?"

"Remember, Clockwork's viewscreen doesn't just show time as it is; it shows time as it _could_ be. Or could have been. And, potentially, I could've changed that night, and it would've been me instead of _him_. So Tucker's gonna post _that_ online, along with 'proof' that the other one was doctored to make it look like you were with Danny Phantom when you were really with me all along. By the time we go to school on Monday morning, everyone will know you didn't cheat on me."

She could see her parents look at each other and then at Danny, confused. Her mom put up one white-gloved hand to stop him. "Wait. Are you saying that video wasn't real?" She looked up at Sam. "Then what was all that in the park, and in the Ghost Zone?"

"No. The video's real." Danny looked a little chagrinned. "Tucker's just gonna make it look like it wasn't so everyone will stop thinking Sam cheated on me and things can go back to the way they were. That's all we wanted, for things to be like they were before this whole mess happened. That's why we staged the 'break-up' in the park."

Her mother gaped at him. "Staged? That was an _act_?"

Sam answered before Danny had the chance. "No, it wasn't."

"Sam…"

She met his gaze, and this time the intensity was hers. "What I said… it wasn't an act, Danny. I meant every word."

His eyes widened, and then the barest edges of a smile softened his face as he nodded, understanding.

Her parents, on the other hand, still didn't have the first clue what was going on. Her mother put her hand to her head as if nursing a headache. "I don't understand, Danny. You say you're in love with our daughter, and that this video of her with someone else is real, and yet, you're a party to some sort of ruse to cover it up? Why would you—?"

A look of dawning comprehension bloomed on her father's face. "You're protecting her," he said to Danny. "She's been seeing the Ghost Boy all along, and you've been covering for her, letting her pretend she was with you instead, despite how you feel about her. Or maybe because of it."

It was like a life preserver flung out to her in a stormy sea, her last chance to keep the truth from her parents, and Sam made a desperate grab for it. "Right… that's it. Danny's been covering for me—"

"Sam, no! That's worse than before! I'm not gonna let them think you'd _use_ me." He directed his attention back towards her parents and grandmother with a sort of wry, self-deprecating grin. "You're only half right, Mr. Manson. She has been seeing the Ghost Boy all along, but I haven't been protecting her. She's the one protecting _me_."

"Protecting you from what?" her mother asked.

"Danny, _please_…" Sam begged.

He ignored her. "From people knowing the truth. From jerks like the Guys in White, who use ghosts as an excuse to do whatever they want to whoever they want."

Her father sniffed. "Why do you need protection from them? They only go after _ghosts_." He said it the way he always did, like it was a dirty word he shouldn't be using in polite company.

His disapproval didn't stop Danny. "Because I _am_ a ghost." And with the bright flash and twin rings of light that Sam knew all too well, he changed from Danny Fenton into Danny Phantom. "Or half-ghost, anyway."


	45. Chapter 45

**Forty-five**

_**The Manson Residence  
Amity Park**_

Sam's mother let out a shriek, and Sam closed her eyes again. _It's over. It's all over…_

"I _knew_ this whole business was _meshugas_!" Her grandmother, joining the conversation for the first time, sounded almost victorious, like she'd won a bet. "I knew that Sammy would never—"

Sam's father cut her off, his voice tight and high-pitched with shock. "Y-you… you've been pretending to be human? How long have you been impersonating Danny Fenton? D-do his parents know?"

That broke Sam's paralysis and she opened her eyes and dashed down the stairs. "No, you've got it wrong! He's not impersonating Danny—he _is_ Danny." She hit the floor and skidded to a stop, positioning herself in front of him like a shield. "There was an accident in his parents' lab two years ago. It gave him ghost powers. But he's still human. And yes, his parents know."

Her mother looked appalled as she stared past Sam to Danny. "And you've made our daughter a part of this? How _dare_ you—!"

"No! Mom! Dad! It wasn't him, it was _me_." Sam shook her head. "It's _my_ fault this happened to him. I'm the one who talked him into checking out his parents' Ghost Portal when they weren't home. I'm the one who kept pushing him to keep fighting whenever he wanted to stop. I'm the one…" And then she couldn't do it anymore. She couldn't pretend that every single time his life was in danger, it wasn't her fault. Choking back the tears that were threatening, she turned to face Danny, suddenly wishing he was back in human form, _her_ Danny again, the one who had saved her before he'd ever stepped foot inside that Ghost Portal. "You wanted to be normal, and I wouldn't let you. If I'd just left it alone, then we wouldn't have to worry about the Guys in White."

His green eyes, which usually glowed brighter when he was angry or preparing for a fight, glowed in a different way now, and when he spoke, it was almost a whisper. "If you'd have left it alone, we'd all be dead."

She shook her head. "Your life is constantly in danger because I wanted you to be different. And I am so scared that the Guys in White, or Vlad, or who knows what else will come along and finally win, and it'll be my fault, because even knowing what you go through, I'm not sorry. I… God, I'm horrible. I'm not sorry, Danny. I'm scared for you, and for what the feds will do if they find out you're half human, but I'm not sorry that you are who you are—who you were meant to be."

He snorted. "Who asked you to be sorry? I'm not sorry, either. I'm _grateful._" He reached out to cup her face with his white-gloved hand.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER."

They both jumped at her father's sudden cry of rage, and Danny took a step away from her, then reverted to human form with another flash of light. "I—"

"Y-you can just stay like you were! Show who you really are!"

Sam whirled to face her father. "Dad! Please, stop!"

"You're right, Mr. Manson." Danny's voice was surprisingly calm, as if the sudden attack had only strengthened his resolve. "That is who I really am, but so is this. Both sides, human _and_ ghost, are who I really am."

Her dad looked like a blood vessel was going to burst in his neck. "I want you to get out, and I want you to stay away from our daughter, do you understand me? If you come near her again, we… we'll call those government agents."

Sam rounded on her father. "I will not let you do that to him! I swear, if you call in the Thugs in White, I will walk out that door and never come back. I— "

"Sam, stop!" Danny put a hand on her arm to restrain her. "I came here to get everything out in the open, not to start a war between you and your parents."

Her mother looked pale, and her father put a hand out to steady her before turning to face Danny again, his eyes cold, hard slits. "I am only going to say it one more time. Get your hand off my daughter, and leave. _Now_."

Danny released her arm and held his hands up. "I'm going." He glanced at Sam. "I'll see you at school—"

"You will never see her again!"

Danny stopped and faced Sam's father, unblinking. "You can keep me from seeing Sam if you want. You can take out another restraining order, or even call the Guys in White and have me arrested. But whatever you do, it's only temporary. I'm not. In less than two years, Sam's gonna be eighteen. And I'll still be here."

Sam's eyes widened as the impact of his words hit her. She opened her mouth to respond, but he met her eyes, stopping her with a small shake of his head, then moved towards the door to leave.

"Stop right there, young man." Her grandmother's voice was strong and commanding. To anyone who didn't know her like Sam did, it would have been shocking, coming from such a deceptively frail old woman. "You're not going anywhere."

Sam's dad let out a grunt of exasperation. "Mother! Stay out of this!"

"I will not stay out of this, Jeremy!" Then she looked at Danny and Sam. "You kids, go wait outside."

"No! I want the boy_gone_, but Sam, don't you take one step!" her father ordered.

"I said _go wait outside_, both of you." Her grandmother then looked at her father in disgust. "What's wrong with you, Jeremy Manson? Threatening this young man with the _feds_. They're like the Gestapo! They were eavesdropping on your daughter, for Pete's sake!"

The argument degenerated from there, with her grandmother and her father shouting at each other, and then her mother joining in, leaving the two teenagers forgotten. Sam arched her eyebrow at Danny. "They could be at this a while." With a jerk of her head, she indicated the front door, and the two of them quietly made their way outside and sat down on the front steps.

The street was dark, illuminated only by lampposts and the glowing blue and white sign from the shoe store across the street. It was also deserted—the Guys in White, their cover blown, had apparently packed up and left. But at this moment, Sam didn't care. She looked at Danny sitting on the steps beside her. "I don't know whether to kiss you or kill you."

"Uh… I vote for the first thing."

"I'm serious! Danny, I—" She stopped, suddenly overwhelmed by everything that had just happened. Not just that he'd revealed himself to her parents, but what he'd said to them. _I'm in love with your daughter._ She chewed her lip a moment, looking into his eyes. "I love you, too, you know."

A smile ghosted across his lips. "I know."

"And I'm scared—"

He leaned in, cutting her off with a kiss. She put one hand behind his neck and pulled him closer, letting the warmth of his lips against hers thaw the frozen knot of fear inside her. It was different, kissing him in human form, than it was kissing him in ghost form, although both were equally appealing in their own way. As a human, his lips, his breath, his skin… everything was warmer, and the heat he was creating in her made her wish they weren't outside on her parents' front porch.

But they were outside on her parents' front porch, with her parents just inside the door, arguing Danny's fate, and suddenly the kiss and the warmth weren't enough to keep her worries at bay.

He must've sensed the change in her mood, because he stopped kissing her and leaned his forehead against hers, his hand cupping her cheek. "I'm not afraid of the Guys in White. I've avoided them before, I can avoid them again. It's just… it's the circus my life will become when everyone finds out that makes me nuts. But I told you already, none of that matters. We will work through it together. Even if your parents do take out another restraining order."

She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes. "Did you really mean what you said? About still being here when we're eighteen? Because a lot can change in two years."

He stroked her cheek with his thumb, and it was hard not to close her eyes and just let the feel of him touching her take her away again. But she wanted to look into his eyes as he answered her. "You don't have to tell me how much can change in two years. I've been a half-ghost for almost two and a half years, and that changed everything for all of us. But having you in my life changed everything, too, and not just because you played a part in me getting ghost powers. _Everything_ about my life is better with you in it, and…" A sheepish smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "You waited for me to stop being an idiot for two years. I kinda owe you."

She gave him a mischievous grin. "I'm _still_ waiting for you to stop being an idiot."

He smirked back at her, the sheepishness gone. "I meant for me to stop being an idiot about admitting I like— Admitting I love you. If you want me to stop being an idiot in general, I think you're gonna be waiting a lot longer than two years."

She cocked her head as if considering her options. "That's okay. I'm not going anywhere." Then, her mood darkened again and she looked down. "I just hope I can say the same about you. I don't want to have to come hunt you down in some sort of Area 51."

"Hey." He took her by the chin and tilted her face so their eyes met again, and with his free hand, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled something out. His dad's ring. No—_her_ ring. "Remember what I said when I gave this to you?"

"Uh… 'Can you hang onto this?'"

He rolled his eyes. "Not that time. When I gave it to you for real." He slipped the ring back on her finger. "I said, 'I don't care what's coming next. I just hope that whatever it is, you're there to share it with me.' I meant it then, and I mean it now. Whatever happens, we'll get through it together, just like we always have. Even if we have to wait a couple of years."

She looked down at the ring. "I don't think you should give it back yet. This isn't over, not until we know what my parents are going to do."

"Are you not listening to anything I'm saying? _It doesn't matter_. We'll get through it, whatever they do."

She nodded, pressing her lips together in determination. They would be together, no matter what her parents decided. She'd meant it when she'd threatened to walk out and never come back if they ratted him out to the feds, or even if they took out another restraining order or tried to stop her from seeing him some other way. There were a lot of things about their relationship she was willing to wait for. Being with him was not one of them. Not anymore.

He put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. She rested her head on his shoulder, and in turn, he rested his against hers. They sat together, not saying a word, looking out at the shoe store sign across the street as it flickered and hummed against the dark night sky.

* * *

It was an hour of arguing before Pam and Jeremy came to a tense agreement with his mother. The situation was bad enough. Their sixteen-year-old daughter dating a boy that was not only from a crazy family of ghost hunters, but was himself a ghost—or half-ghost, whatever that meant—and then her threatening to run off with him if they tried to alert the authorities. It was worse to have Jeremy's mother take her side. The woman controlled Sam's entire trust fund. One call to the bank, and not only could Sam make good on her threat to run off with him, she could buy her own private island to run to, and her own private jet to get them there.

Pam sighed. _Well, at least I won't have to worry about her living on the streets._

It wasn't much consolation.

That thought, however, is what reminded her that she hadn't seen Sam or Danny since the fight with Ida began, and she had a sudden panic attack. "Jeremy! The kids! They're gone!"

"Oh, don't get your knickers in a twist," her mother-in-law chided. "I told them to go outside, so they went outside. They're right there, on the front steps."

Pam looked out the window in the front door, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that Ida was right—Sam and Danny were still there, huddled together on the top step. She was wearing his jacket, leaving him in nothing but his t-shirt. If he was cold, however, it didn't show. He had his arm around her as she leaned against his shoulder, and his head was resting on top of hers. It was a surprisingly sweet sight—not the least bit licentious or… hormonal, like that horrible video. Whatever he was, one thing was clear—this boy loved her daughter. Enough to risk everything just to tell them the truth.

Or so Ida had drummed into them for the past hour.

Pam met her husband's eye. "Well, I guess we should go out and talk to them." He nodded, and reached for the doorknob.

"I'll be right here," Ida said. It was more a threat than an offer of support.

Jeremy gritted his teeth. "I know, Mother. You've made yourself perfectly clear."

They opened the door, and Sam and Danny immediately separated. Danny jumped to his feet, turning to face them, his face a mixture of apprehension and determination. In this moment, he looked so much like the Ghost Boy had when he'd been asserting his leadership in the Ghost Zone, it was hard for Pam to understand how she could have missed it before. And really, it was the only thing that could explain their daughter's erratic behavior, kissing the Ghost Boy when not hours earlier she'd declared herself in love with Danny Fenton. Samantha was many things, most of them things Pamela couldn't understand. But she was not fickle, and she did not go back on her word.

It was Sam who spoke first as she got to her feet to stand, defiant, at Danny's side. "So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna call the Guys in White? Give away his identity?"

Jeremy sighed. "No."

The tension drained out of Sam's body, but only for an instant, and then the wariness was back. "And what about Danny and me? Are you going to try and stop me from seeing him?"

Neither Pam nor Jeremy said anything for a moment. She wanted to say yes, of course they weren't going to allow her to continue seeing this boy who wasn't even completely human. It was absolutely ludicrous. And the fact that Sam asked like she were issuing a challenge rather than making a request was galling. But even without her mother-in-law coughing behind her, the image of these two kids sitting together quietly on the porch stuck with her. "No, we won't try and stop you from seeing each other."

Both kids almost melted into puddles of relief on her front porch, and Pam held up a hand to stop them before they got too satisfied with themselves. "Not so fast. First of all, we want to have a long talk with your parents, Danny."

"Yeah, I kinda figured."

"And there are going to be some rules, which you're both going to have to follow them this time, not just wink and nod and pay lip service to."

Sam looked leery, but Danny nodded in ready agreement. "Whatever you say, Mrs. Manson."


	46. Chapter 46

**Forty-six**

_**Casper High School cafeteria  
Amity Park**_

Tucker gaped at Danny and Sam across the lunch table from him, astonished. "So everything's cool with your folks? They're not gonna call the Guys in White on Danny?"

Sam sat across the table from him, her arms crossed, and an expression of disgust on her face. "Nope." Her voice was flat and lifeless.

"And they're gonna let you keep seeing each other?" Valerie, sitting next to Tucker, sounded as amazed as he felt. "Even though Danny's a you-know-what?"

"Yep." Danny's tone was as dull as Sam's as he sat with his elbows propped up on the table next to his untouched lunch, his chin resting in his hands, and his teeth clenched in annoyance. Although he was next to Sam, there was a good two feet between the two of them.

"And they're gonna let you keep fighting ghosts?" This was even more inconceivable to Tucker than the fact that they were going to be allowed to see each other. His own parents had been quite alarmed when they'd told them the truth, not so much about Danny being half ghost, but about the looming threat of Vlad gathering up a ghost army and what he might do to Amity Park in general, and to Tucker in particular.

"Yep," Sam replied in the same monotone.

Tucker exchanged glances with Valerie. _What's with them?_ "Then why aren't you guys celebrating? This is huge! No more sneaking around, no more worrying about what her parents will do if they find out. So how come you guys are acting like you just came from a funeral?"

Sam drummed her fingers on her arms. "There were a few… conditions."

Valerie raised her eyebrow. "Conditions?"

"Yeah. Like for one, I'm still grounded."

"So?" Tucker shrugged. "You've been grounded before."

"Yeah, but not like this."

Tucker cocked his head, confused. "Like what?"

Danny sat up straight, his disgruntled expression not changing. He reached towards Sam, placing a single index finger on her shoulder. Immediately, his body stiffened and he let out a yelp of pain as some sort of electrical shock zapped him. It stopped as soon as he jerked his finger away from Sam.

Tucker's eyes widened. "What the—?"

Sam lifted the hem of her uncharacteristically long shirt just enough to reveal a white and green belt beneath. Now Tucker's jaw dropped open. "Is that a—?"

"Yep." Sam dropped her shirt. "It's a Specter Deflector."

Tucker was speechless a moment, and then he started to chuckle. "Your parents are making you wear that?"

"For _two weeks_."

Tucker met Val's eye again, neither one of them able to contain their laughter. "_Man_. They really _are_ using the Specter Deflector as a chastity belt!"

He simultaneously got a kick on his shin under the table from Sam, and a hole burned through the top of his beret by way of a furtive ghost ray from Danny. "Hey!" He took the beret off and patted the singed hair beneath with one hand while leaning down to rub his bruised shin with the other. For the first time all day, both Danny's and Sam's sour expressions lightened, and Tucker scowled at Sam. "I thought you didn't condone Danny using his ghost powers to get back at people."

"I'm willing to make exceptions in certain cases."

Tucker mumbled in complaint as he put his ruined hat back on his head while Valerie schooled her features to try to stop laughing. She looked at Sam. "Why don't you just take it off when your parents aren't around?"

"They locked it."

"Oh, that shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure I've got something in my suit—"

Sam shook her head, pointing behind her as Mr. Lancer approached. "Hello, Mr. Fenton. Ms. Manson. Everything still in order?"

Sam looked like she was going to chew through her own lip. "Yes, Mr. Lancer," she ground out, lifting the hem of her shirt once more.

Lancer leaned just enough so that he could see the Specter Deflector, then nodded in approval. "Very good. Carry on, then." And he walked away.

Tucker gaped at them. "They got _Lancer_ involved?"

"He checks on me, like, every half hour."

Valerie blinked. "What about your parents, Danny? Couldn't they say something—?"

"Who do you think gave the Mansons the Specter Deflector in the first place?" Danny let his chin drop back down into his hands, disgusted. "Not only that, my parents installed a Ghost Shield in Sam's house yesterday. Her parents keep it on twenty-four/seven. I won't be able to go over there at all while she's grounded, and after that's over, I'll only be able to come over in human form. Through the front door."

Tucker rolled his eyes. "Yeah, welcome to the world of the mere mortals."

"Don't get too smug. Your house is next," Danny warned.

"Yeah, but I don't think my parents have quite the same worries about you as hers do." Tucker flashed them a wicked grin.

Danny pointed a threatening finger. "You want more holes in that beret?"

"No. And you owe me a new one, by the way."

"Whatever."

Tucker leaned forward. "Oh, lighten up. At least you two still get to see each other, and thanks to yours truly, Casper High and the rest of the world now think 'SamPhan' was a complete fraud." He smiled, proud of his work.

"Yeah, that's true." Danny looked at Sam. "And even if I can't get, like, within two feet of you, at least I don't have to pretend I'm not speaking to you. That was the worst."

She nodded. "Yeah, it was."

"So all's well that ends well," Tucker said.

"Not quite." Valerie's tone was dark. "There's still Vlad."

"Yeah, there's still Vlad." Danny, however, sounded a little more hopeful than Val. "But we don't have to worry about him quite yet. It's gonna take a while for him to recover from the Ghostly Wail/snow people one-two punch, and then he's gonna have to start recruiting for his ghost army. Once he does that, he'll tip his hand, and we'll get him."

"You think it'll be that easy?"

"No," he admitted. "But we'll take it like we take everything else… together." Then he smiled at each of them, putting his hand out in the middle of the table.

Valerie nodded, adding her hand on top of his. "True. We are the best team of ghost fighters this side of Sleepy Hollow."

"You got that right," Tucker said, adding his own hand.

"Kicking ghost butt and taking names," Sam agreed, placing her hand on top of the pile. But her arm brushed against Danny's, and he jumped, shocked once more. Sam quickly removed her hand, giving him a sheepish look. "Uh… I'll just add my hand metaphorically for now."

"Yeah." Danny shook out his own hand. "That'd probably be a good idea."

_-THE END-_


End file.
